Patterico's Pontifications

2/3/2017

Big Media’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 11:30 am



Big Media had a really bad day yesterday — even for them — and I thought a brief roundup of just some of the freakouts they had to immediately retract would be useful. Not that I think it will actually shame the worst of them . . . but maybe some of the better ones, looking at all these things in one place, will start to stage an intervention with the rest.

In this post I will list four different absurd, patently ridiculous stories that could have been avoided with even a modicum of skepticism:

TRUMP ADMINISTRAITON CHANGES SANCTIONS TO BENEFIT FSB

Culprit: Peter Alexander, NBC News

This one was spotted by Becket Adams. and covered by Joe Cunningham in this post.It speaks for itself; just read the two tweets:

Peter Alexander

Note how the truth of the second tweet is just lacing up its shoes while the first, false tweet has already raced around the world.

GORSUCH SUPPOSEDLY FOUNDING “FASCISM FOREVER” CLUB

Culprit: Alana Goodman at DailyMail.com

Alana Goodman at the Daily Mail Web site was responsible for the claim that Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch had founded a club in high school called “Fascism Forever.” She based her bogus story on a single yearbook entry.

Just one problem: Other journalists actually conducted interviews and applied common sense, and revealed that there had been no such club. It was a wry joke by Gorsuch in the yearbook, made in reaction to over-the-top accusations by lefties.

TRUMP RENAMING BLACK HISTORY MONTH AS THE SAME THING IT WAS ALWAYS CALLED

Culprit: John Haltiwanger at Elite Daily

Charles C.W. Cooke called this “a story in four parts.” Once again, it’s self-explanatory. Just read the tweets in order.

Haltiwanger 1

Haltiwanger 2

Haltiwanger 3

Haltiwanger 4

Joe Cunningham covered this in this post, showing how it spread throughout Big Media.

GORSUCH OP-ED CRITICIZED EVEN THOUGH IT WAS WRITTEN BY SOMEONE ELSE

Culprit: Corky Siemaszko of NBC News

Corky Siemaszko of NBC News was responsible for trumpeting an op-ed supposedly written by Gorsuch in which (Siemaszko claimed) Gorsuch “opposed military recruiting on campus precisely because it discriminated against gays and lesbians.”

Just one problem: It was someone else’s op-ed. Two op-eds had begun on page 6, one by Gorsuch, and one by another student who was a considerably inferior intellect and writer. When the pieces jumped to page 9, the names were reversed for the continuation. Does that let the reporter off the hook? Not at all. Not only were the subject matter, writing style, and tone different after the jump, but the sentence that went across the jump made no sense whatsoever. If the reporter had actually read the op-ed, as opposed to scanning it for stuff he could rush out to embarrass Gorsuch, the reporter would have noticed this.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Yesterday, Allahpundit at Hot Air — writing about another bogus media freakout, having to do with President Trump’s call with the Australian Prime Minister — had this important observation:

American politics increasingly feels like a novel whose events are retold by two unreliable narrators, Trump being one and the media being the other. The truth, or something close to it, is in there somewhere between the two of them.

I am immediately skeptical of anything coming out of the Trump administration, headed as it is by one of the least honest individuals in politics during my lifetime. And I realize that it has been a goal of the Trump administration to delegitimize the media, which would make it easier for their own false narratives to be accepted by the citizenry.

But damned if Big Media isn’t doing a hell of a job walking directly into that trap.

I am not going to write off all big media journalists because of this type of irresponsible reporting. It would be unfair to write off, for example, ABC’s Jan Crawford — a solid reporter who had the scoop on the Gorsuch nomination for days while the rest of Big Media was chasing its collective tail — because of these stories yesterday, written by other so-called journalists. In the same vein, it would be unfair to reject me or other RedState writers because we publish our posts in the same medium as the fact-challenged, exclamation-point-loving, Trump-approved propagandist Jim Hoft.

Therefore, my approach will be to pay attention to who the offenders are. To name them and shame them. I hope this post helps contribute to that effort.

[Cross-posted at RedState and The Jury Talks Back.]

UPDATE: The version of this post at The Jury Talks Back will be the exclusive place I will be commenting, starting at 6 p.m. Friday. I leave this forum for the weekend, so that discussion of my awful anti-Trump bias can have its usual free rein here. I’ll see the civil commenters over there! We have Recent Comments! And snacks!

127 Responses to “Big Media’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”

  1. This approx. 15 minute video clip is from the day after the Berkeley riots. In studio Tucker and (a cleaned up mostly respectable) Milo discuss free speech, hate speech, and how the media reported the “protests” and tried to justify them. So I think this is very germane to the thrust of this thread. Watch this in its entirty and tell me Milo is not on to something important. Watch it and tell me that Milo is not an incredibly eloquent spokesman for the importance of Constitutional free speech in this country.

    https://youtu.be/moNe7-sK8i8

    By the way, Milo told Tucker that the only writer on the mainstream left who spoke out for him and his right to speak was Peter Beinart in the Atlantic .

    https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/everyone-has-a-right-to-free-speech-even-milo/515565/

    elissa (692a2c)

  2. I never knew Emily Littella was a real person actually working for big media. “Oh, never mind!”

    jim (2690d9)

  3. That can’t be the same Milo. Because you didn’t include the words “provocateur”, “rabblerouser”, or “controversial”, in the name.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  4. Well Milo is is a provocateur and he pushes the limit sometimes because he especially likes to expose and beclown idiotic PC goings on on campuses. But, you don’t make points on college campuses in this day and age if you go in looking and talking like William F. Buckley.

    elissa (692a2c)

  5. Wasn’t the bust of MLK moved out of the Oval Office? Not!

    AZ Bob (f7a491)

  6. You can name them, but I seriously doubt that you can shame them. I have seen nothing to convince me that they have any shame at all. It is the time of fake news and the FSM (Fake Stream Media) is running rampant. And that’s supposedly with their ‘layers and layers of editors and fact checkers.’

    Bill M (906260)

  7. President Trump is surpassing everyone’s expectations.

    He is so good.

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  8. “I am immediately skeptical of anything coming out of the Trump administration, headed as it is by one of the least honest individuals in politics during my lifetime.

    You were born after 2001?

    “a goal of the Trump administration to delegitimize the media, which would make it easier for their own false narratives ”
    You have let your hatred for Trump to overwhelm your rational thought processes.

    fred-2 (ce04f3)

  9. For some reason I am reminded of the idea of locking 30 monkeys in a room with typewriters and waiting patiently for a Shakespearian sonnet to be produced, the difference being that the output would be screened for it’s utility in embarrassing Trump, and not it’s contribution to literature.

    Now to check elissa’s link.

    BobStewartatHome (c24491)

  10. I’m a grandfather. I’m older than Patterico. Donald Trump is at least as dishonest as Barack Obama and Billary Clinton. No other President has been more dishonest in my lifetime.

    John Hitchcock (eb91b8)

  11. #10 Johnny,

    Easy, now.
    President Mr Donald’s only been president for two weeks.
    Let’s wait until the first gallon of milk goes sour before we overreact and declare the next three years, eleven months, and two weeks to be a Titanic disaster.

    Go get yourself a nice sandwich and rejoice in the fact that Neil Gorsuch is going to become the next Justice.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  12. The only downside to how happy Trump is making me – is he is making ‘feets happier.

    Steven Malynn (d29fc3)

  13. Milo interview (@ #1) definitely worth listening to. Thanks elissa.

    So you got to keep your doctor Mr. Hitchcock? No DNA on anybody’s blue dress? Trump is obviously using his staff much more effectively than Clinton or Obama. Executive experience is the difference. Whether you like the guy or not.

    BobStewartatHome (c24491)

  14. I have said he’s been doing good things so far. That doesn’t mean he’s an honest person. He isn’t. Not even close to being a person of integrity.

    John Hitchcock (eb91b8)

  15. Media and the left going full brownshirt. Goebbels would be proud.

    NJRob (126a79)

  16. Funny.

    Trump may lie about little things but he sure has not lied about the big things. Doing what he said he would do on the big issues.

    Can’t say the same for Clinton, Obama and Bush (I and II).

    Blah Blah (44eaa0)

  17. As usual, I agree with our host.

    On the other hand, in today’s media environment, it should simply be accepted that there is almost certainly more to any story than the initial report(s) suggests, and that additional information will be uncovered by other people. Don’t rush to conclusions. Why is every partially informed tweet by some random schmuck, like the “Trump Renamed Black History Month” tweets by John Haltiwanger (who?), an indictment of “Big Media”? (huh? wtf ever heard of “Elite Daily”?)

    The problem is that because the shoot-from-the-hip culture of social media and blogs occasionally scoops the more traditional media in dramatic fashion, we have started to expect the same level of reliability on every 140-word installment. Basically anything posted on the internet, apart from official statements and communications from the principals themselves, should be viewed as a rough draft. For example, there is nothing dishonest about the Peter Alexander tweets or the Gorsuch stories – they are simply incomplete in light of additional information found later.

    We are expecting others to do what *we* should do, which is to scrutinize, to the extent possible, the veracity of everything we read and hear. That goes for stories you don’t like as well as stories you do. It also means more than simply dismissing anything you don’t want to hear as “fake news”. If you don’t do that, you should accept that a lot of what you read is going to be mistaken or incomplete, sometimes in very important respects.

    It would be nice if everyone would take greater care about the accuracy of what they write and say, but the coverage will *always* be dominated by the first one out of the gate, which is very likely to be the least accurate. For example, it may well be that 9 other reporters were checking with their sources about the Russia sanctions story when the 10th, Peter Alexander, decided to post (without comment) what he had already learned, leaving out important context. There may have been other news organizations who found the “Fascism Forever” business in Gorsuch’s yearbook, and were trying to sort out the truth of it – no matter, the Daily Mail went ahead, and that became the discussion. It is a platitude of news coverage that the initial reports are usually inaccurate. A corollary is that the most inaccurate reports are probably the first to emerge, and will therefore dominate peoples’ impressions of the coverage.

    Dave (711345)

  18. Can’t say the same for Clinton, Obama and Bush (I and II).

    What promises did Bush I and II break during their first two weeks in office?

    Dave (711345)

  19. it’s so hard to find good places to read good reporting about these wonderful developments

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  20. ==Milo interview (@ #1) definitely worth listening to. Thanks elissa.==

    Thank you for your feedback BobStewartatHome. I do think many people don’t have a good understanding of Milo–probably because they watch the alphabet networks and the NYT.

    elissa (36949e)

  21. Ben Shapiro had an exhaustive catalog of fake news, in the last week.

    narciso (d1f714)

  22. Well, Hell… I’m a grandfather too and I’d like to state in relation to post #10 that opinions are like elbows, nearly everyone has at least one.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  23. Now beinart is the same sod who excommunicated Jared kushner out of Judaism because squirrel, in the forward.

    narciso (d1f714)

  24. “What it means” is being first is increasingly more important w/t suits in this competitive, multi-platform, 24/7/365 media environment than being correct. That’s how suits keep score. A trend Cronkite constantly railed against.

    Getting it right is what counts.

    “And that’s the way it is…” – Walter Cronkite, CBS Evening News signoff.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  25. This morning, the Pentagon released a video captured during the recent Yemen raid:

    “The videos are one example of the volumes of sensitive al-Qaeda terror-planning information recovered during the operation,” said Col. John J. Thomas, US Central Command spokesman, said in that statement. “What was captured from the site has already afforded insights into al-Qaeda leadership, AQAP methods of exporting terror, and how they communicate.”

    This afternoon they took it down, after it was discovered that the video was made in 2007 and has been available on the internet for 10 years…

    Dave (711345)

  26. My understanding of Milo Yiannopoulos is from his own writings, linked at Instapundit, and from Vox Day, from when I was still visiting those sites. Is he even a U.S. citizen? George Soros has been one for 55 years.

    nk (dbc370)

  27. I think what’s changed is that many of us for a long time have recognized and talked about the media’s biases– not only in how stories were presented or slanted, but also with respect to which stories were told at all. But it’s not possible any longer to accept that this stuff is the result of journalistic confirmation bias. It has moved to full on propaganda.

    elissa (36949e)

  28. 14 days. Lots of ceremonies, plenty of decrees signed, a SCOTUS nom named and allies hair mussed.

    Very Obama.

    “It’s good to be the king…” – Mel Brooks, ‘History Of The World, Part 1’ 1981

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  29. It has moved to full on propaganda.

    Which, not coincidentally, reinforces the indoctrination that millennials are purchasing with borrowed money under the mistaken belief that they are getting an education. If there are any free countries left in the world in fifty years, they will look back on this period and wonder how we could have fallen so low.

    BobStewartatHome (c24491)

  30. It has moved to full on propaganda.

    Calling it propaganda implies that the people writing and publishing the stuff know it is false.

    Usually bad or incomplete reporting is discovered within hours, if not minutes. In some cases (see the Peter Alexander and John Haltiwanger tweets in the OP), it is the initial reporter who provides the corrective follow-up information.

    Do you seriously think they intentionally tell false narratives, in full knowledge that the truth will be discovered in less than a day?

    Or do you think the purveyors of this “propaganda” believe that the entire internet will somehow fail to uncover the truth (which, remember, they themselves had to be able to find, since they know what they are writing is false), despite all recent evidence to the contrary?

    It is rather bizarre and implausible conspiracy theory, although admittedly it does allow you to instantly dismiss any news you don’t want to believe.

    Dave (711345)

  31. “I am immediately skeptical of anything coming out of the Trump administration, headed as it is by one of the least honest individuals in politics during my lifetime. And I realize that it has been a goal of the Trump administration to delegitimize the media, which would make it easier for their own false narratives to be accepted by the citizenry.”

    “But damned if Big Media isn’t doing a hell of a job walking directly into that trap.”

    I read the above comments with abject dismay. Why, just the other day you chastised some of the more devout Trump worshipers in these comments for attributing positive developments to President Trump’s strategic brilliance. You rejected the notion – and rightly so – that it’s all a part of Trumps genius plan. Now you appear to have switched sides. The press, you want us to believe, is being set up by Trump and they are walking into his diabolical trap. So you’ve come around on this. You now believe he’s the cunning mastermind after all. Really?

    But what really dismays me is your willingness to let the MSM off the hook for their complete lack of professionalism. Sadly, over the years we have seen the media evolved into a petulant, dissembling mob that hates Republicans with a passion. But now you want to absolve them of their sins. It’s a trap, you say, set by President Trump, the Dr. Evil of American politics. At this moment, when “journalists” and the Left, more generally, have gone completely off the deep end, your reflex is to absolve them. “It’s not them; it’s Trump!” Really?
    Finally, President Trump has spent the first week of his presidency living up to his campaign promises more completely and with greater dispatch than any President in my memory – I guess nobody bothered to tell candidate Trump that campaign promises aren’t real promises. In this truly extraordinary first week, President Trump proved many (most?) of my own predictions completely, totally and absolutely wrong. Against this backdrop, you inform us that President Trump is the least honest individual in politics (not just the least honest President, but all individuals in politics) in your lifetime. Again, all I can say is: Really?

    Ps. Allahpundits post is just more of the same fatuous drivel he seems to a patent on. The first sentence of his lede:

    “American politics increasingly feels like a novel whose events are retold by two unreliable narrators, Trump being one and the media being the other.”

    “Increasingly?” Please tell me, when in the past, recent or otherwise, has the media not acted like the hyper-partisan Democrats that they are? Please tell me, are you referring to the magnanimity they demonstrated during the Bush Jr. presidency. Or, perhaps, the Reagan presidency? When has their “narrative” been anything but unreliable concerning Republicans? Never, that’s when. What a dishonest strawman! So why the dissembling, Allahpundit?

    The truth is that Allahpundit is just another not-so-closeted #NeverTrumper.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  32. Yes but the corrections lag the actual fake news by a parsec, bow what did you think of the first episode of the second season of the expanse

    narciso (d1f714)

  33. The truth is that Allahpundit is just another not-so-closeted #NeverTrumper.

    We prefer “conservative”.

    Dave (711345)

  34. Milo appears to be a self-promoting provocateur, but his opinions – whether I agree or not – are usually quite interesting. I find the guy to be outrageously and flamboyantly funny. And he has the right to make his speeches or put his show on (however you want to characterize it) without threats or displays of violence. That should hold true for anyone, whatever their politics. That shouldn’t even be up for discussion.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  35. “American politics increasingly feels like a novel whose events are retold by two unreliable narrators, Trump being one and the media being the other.”

    You miss the point. In the past, even as recently as a year or so ago, our side used to tell the truth.

    Dave (711345)

  36. hot air isn’t a thing anymore

    i had to go back and add in some stalwarts like ace (the morning post especially is helpful for america) and powerline and jom and zerohedge is suddenly indispensable

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  37. Fake news appears to be an expensive proposition for buzzfeed, re the dodge dossier.

    While the security services were so hopped up on that, they paid less attention seemingly to the lodgings of dharab clan, and when the operation was finally greenlighted, the forces arrayed were more than expected.

    narciso (d1f714)

  38. @27. What has “changed” is the speed and volume in which information -good and bad- is pumped out.

    It’s like drinking from a fire hose.

    There’s no time to digest, edit and check or recheck information because the pressures of being first are increasingly overwhelming. The process, which once was done by editors with daily deadlines given time to mull, check and filter facts and information, now is done literally minute-by-minute in virtual ‘real time’ by harried reporters and editors on the fly, bloggers and readers with instant feedback.

    Making the sausage is now a community enterprise, worldwide, around the clock. The verdict on whether this change is good or bad remains to be seen in time. But increasingly over the past 20 years or so, the news consumer is forced to become their own editors and that can become an exercise in reinforcing existing beliefs and rejecting alternative points of view.

    “We’ll tell you anything you want to hear; we lie like hell.” – Howard Beale [Peter Finch] ‘Network’ 1976

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  39. Do you ever hear Michael Moore described as a “self-promoting provocateur”?

    Or Al Sharpton?

    Or James Carville?

    Or Gloria Allred?

    Or . . .

    ThOR (c9324e)

  40. Except it was only Howard Beale who spoke out against the cca deal

    So that gallop poll, like the colon blow cereal, guess the d\r margin, 34 points

    narciso (d1f714)

  41. You have let your hatred for Trump to overwhelm your rational thought processes.

    Everyone thank fred-2 for driving me to The Jury Talks Back for at least the weekend. If you have a point you want me to respond to, that’s where I’ll be.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  42. ThOR and his lengthy parade of mischaracterizations of my arguments deserves honorable mention.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  43. Where he misrepresents one calls him out, but when their is a dishonest i terlocutor like Bier, when CNN and buzzfeed blackened crowleys name, maybe some revision is in order.

    narciso (d1f714)

  44. @40–Which led to televising the ‘Corporate Cosmology of Arthur Jensen,’ a depressed, shrinking audience and ultimately forced the network to kill his show– and him.

    “…the first known instance of a man who was killed because he had lousy ratings.” – Narrator, ‘Network’ 1976

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  45. Hey Dave!

    Which of the dozen or so Republican pretenders do you believe would have more completely and honestly followed through on their campaign promises that President Trump? Among them, which would have put together a more “conservative” cabinet? Or put forward a better Justice?

    I believe you miss the point. If there is anything to be learned from American politics, it is that our side has never been much for telling the truth. For Republicans, especially, talk is cheap. Trump, by contrast, has spent the last week confirming that he is the conservative he claimed to be. I’m not a “conservative”, exactly. I’m a “show me” Republican. Trump has shown us all.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  46. Once the false stories are out and printed and posted on-line and re-tweeted and linked on various blog sites and on facebook and land as “trending news” and are picked up in google searches, then whatever the appropriate “correction” or “apology” that is made is never seen by nearly all the people who saw the original version. Of course, not every journalist in America does this on purpose and anybody can make “a” mistake. But the obvious lack of journalistic verification, research and non-existent editing accompanying so much of the incorrect information being published these days suggests to me that this is not all accidental sloppiness. Recently the Atlantic Magazine was forced to make at least five corrections to a single article on prenatal ultrasounds which pretty much changed the entire article.

    http://hotair.com/archives/2017/01/27/correction-of-the-year-the-atlantic-regrets/

    elissa (36949e)

  47. Thank you. I try.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  48. UPDATE: The version of this post at The Jury Talks Back will be the exclusive place I will be commenting, starting at 6 p.m. Friday. I leave this forum for the weekend, so that discussion of my awful anti-Trump bias can have its usual free rein here. I’ll see the civil commenters over there! We have Recent Comments! And snacks!

    Patterico (115b1f)

  49. yes yes he walks the walk, our president does

    and nevertrump is flabberflubbered!

    john mccain’s gonna have to catch a flight back to nam and get some guidance on this

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  50. ikes

    the recent comments thingy almost trickered me into commenting at JTB

    abort abort abort

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  51. Occasionally there is a man biters dog, like in the Quebec shooting, where the Moroccan was the witness but that is exceedingly rare.

    narciso (d1f714)

  52. oh. is fixed now

    all is right in the whirl

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  53. This isn’t that complicated.

    If you care to understand Trump, peruse a few copies of Playboy from 1965 or 1966; revisit the mindset of business conduct in Mad Men and enjoy the corporate climate in the 1967 comedy, ‘How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.’ If you want to understand the media of today, study closely the prescient, 40-year old 1976 satire, ‘Network.‘ Because then, such a thing seemed absurd. Now it’s reality.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  54. So the leaked conversation with pena nieto, that misrepresented the tone, where does that fall.

    On the expanse, a misunderstanding between mars confederation navy and UN forces claims the entire moon of phoebe, I hate it when that happrns

    narciso (d1f714)

  55. wait now it’s broken again

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  56. “That can’t be the same Milo. Because you didn’t include the words “provocateur”, “rabblerouser”, or “controversial”, in the name.”

    Those descriptors for Milo are so 2016. Now he’s a white nationalist who torments blacks and muslims in many articles.

    The only problem I have with Milo (besides his talking way too fast when a bit slower with more clarity would get his ideas across much better) is his penchant for personal appearance smack. If he wants to tell fat women they are unhealthy fine but referring to them as cows or stooping to call other liberal women “mannish” really serves no purpose.

    Harkin (470cbb)

  57. Newsweek says “Milo gets schooled at Berkeley” with this tweet and picture. Absolutely sick.

    https://twitter.com/Newsweek/status/827157997394735104/photo/1

    elissa (36949e)

  58. Trump trumped? Travel “ban” in meltdown w/breaking news. ‘Back to normal’ travel calls made to major air carriers.

    Will he tweet, sleep or watch teevee for some governing tips? Blazing Saddles is on TCM!

    “Ah. Haley versus the United States. Haley 7, United States, nothing. See, it can be done!” – Hedley Lamarr [Harvey Korman] ‘Blazing Saddles’ 1974

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  59. 39… No, you never hear those folks described as such, Thor. I’d characterize Sharpton as a lying, leftwing, race-baiting, tax-evading, FBI snitch of a pimp. Carville is an inbred, bayou-sucking, political hack of a Louisiana mongrel.

    Allred is a strident, ambulance-chasing, cartoonish, opportunistic vampire of a lawyer.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  60. beinart is the same sod who excommunicated Jared kushner out of Judaism because squirrel, in the forward.

    Better than those who wanted to do so because he and Yael (Ivanka) were driven to and from the Inaugural balls on Friday night, with rabbinical permission (on the grounds that the security risk was great enough to override the usual prohibition)….

    Kishnevi (98ea1b)

  61. 56.
    Milo offends for the sake of being offensive. He is one of those cases in which the only reason to defend him is the principle of free speech. “I despise what you say, but I will defend your right to say it.

    Kishnevi (98ea1b)

  62. 59
    Carville would probably take that description as a compliment.

    Kishnevi (98ea1b)

  63. Not me. I will only defend Yiannopoulos’ right to withdraw quietly back to his closet. In England. Politics makes for strange bedfellows, but the Trumpkin orgy could have been produced by Andy Warhol.

    nk (dbc370)

  64. Well, as a Greek, you do have extra reason to detest him.

    Kishnevi (98ea1b)

  65. Which of the dozen or so Republican pretenders do you believe would have more completely and honestly followed through on their campaign promises that President Trump? Among them, which would have put together a more “conservative” cabinet? Or put forward a better Justice?

    First, I dispute the premise of your question. Trump promised to lock up Hillary; instead he toasted her at his inaugural. He promised to “immediately” end DACA. He promised to end (not reduce, end) crime and violence as of Inauguration Day. He promised to “completely repeal” Obamacare. He promised to sue all the women who accused him of sexual assault. He promised to completely ban Muslim immigration. He promised to end freedom of the press. He promised to end violent crime and homicides in Chicago “within one week”. He promised to sign an executive order mandating the death penalty for anyone convicted of killing a police officer. He promised to institute methods of torture “a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding”. He promised to eliminate the $20T national debt in eight years. He promised to have Bowe Bergdahl thrown out of an airplane over Afghanistan without a parachute. He promised to have US soldiers execute unarmed women and children who are suspected relatives of terrorists. He promised to give all of us “everything”.

    None of those promises have been kept, and most will never be kept. The Washington Post has documented 282 of Trump’s campaign promises, most with links to contemporaneous quotations or video footage. I would be surprised if more than 10-20% of them are actually kept, even in part. Many of them would be criminal and/or impeachable offenses. Others, like his promises to a) leave the minimum wage at $7.25/hr “which is already too high”, b) raise the minimum wage to $10/hr “because $7.25 is too low”, and c) allow states to set their own minimum wage, have the problem of being mutually incompatible.

    The candidates I preferred (Walker early, and then Cruz) made a lot less promises, but they actually had concrete plans for how to keep them. Given that both of them actually understand, and have governed according to, conservative, limited-government, constitutionalist principles, there’s no reason to think their cabinets or Supreme Court picks would have been any less conservative. Trump obviously has no clue about conservative judges and had to have outside people (including Ted Cruz) and organizations make a list for him to wave around during the campaign.

    I believe you miss the point. If there is anything to be learned from American politics, it is that our side has never been much for telling the truth. For Republicans, especially, talk is cheap. Trump, by contrast, has spent the last week confirming that he is the conservative he claimed to be. I’m not a “conservative”, exactly. I’m a “show me” Republican. Trump has shown us all.

    The first weeks of any administration are always a grab of “low-hanging fruit” with executive orders. Trump has the advantage of control of congress, which no incoming Republican president has had since Eisenhower.

    Again, I dispute your premise that other Republican presidents wantonly made promises and failed to keep them. Reagan promised to balance the budget, but reneged on that. He kept the vast majority of his promises, though. Bush’41 famously broke the “no new taxes” promise. This was a political disaster, although arguably the right decision for the country, given the Democrats’ control of congress and Gramm-Rudman law. Bush’43 kept his campaign promises, except that congress balked at his social security reform initiative.

    Dave (711345)

  66. You surprise me nk. I always suspected from your comments here that you were both a practitioner and an appreciator of the edgy and churning it up. I’ll bet you didn’t watch the Tucker video did you? I am looking forward to reading Milo’s book which just got a lot of free marketing thanks to the blac block and the fascist Berkeley students who probably don’t even know what the word “fascist” means.

    elissa (36949e)

  67. Name that ends in -eas, -akis, -akos,
    Is a genuine Cretan or Maniote.
    Name that ends in -opoulos and -poulos,
    Is a bastard and a mule.

    Common saying where I’m from – Mani across from Crete. Kind of like Southerners and “Damyankees”.

    nk (dbc370)

  68. Yes they trashed an entire city to prevent one person speaking, and it gave him a bigger audience in the process

    narciso (d1f714)

  69. I just don’t like Yiannopoulos and his buddies at Vox Day and Breitbart, elissa. And is Martin Shkreli one too now?

    nk (dbc370)

  70. No he’s Albanian, and I’m not crazy about rick Sanchez, Perez Hilton or James Costa, either

    narciso (d1f714)

  71. I use shorthand to hint at things when I cant link or don’t have the info at my fingertips, this is what happened with kellyanne and bowling green.

    narciso (d1f714)

  72. Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos will speak to students at the University of California Davis on the quad Saturday afternoon—a day after protests led a Republican student group to cancel his scheduled joint speaking event with ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli.
    http://fortune.com/2017/01/14/milo-yiannopoulo-martin-shkreli-uc-davis/

    nk (dbc370)

  73. I don’t know, nk. I rarely read Breitbart since Andrew left us. Don’t even know what Vox Day is, and it would be impossible for me to have any less interest in Martin Shkreli. But in a Kardashian society Milo increasingly seems to have carved out a unique space on the libertarian right especially with young people I think.

    You may be old enough to recall that Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase “the medium is the message” meaning that the form of a medium embeds itself in any message it would transmit or convey, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived. I think this is where Milo’s most useful influence lies. He is totally unlike anybody else in public life right now. I agree he is a self promoter but I also think that he genuinely cares about exposing and changing the current direction of leftist academic brainwashing on college campuses. His humor and blatant disrespect/contempt of PC norms is what gets the conversation going.

    elissa (36949e)

  74. I think Milo would be an awesome dinner party guest, BTW. 🙂

    elissa (36949e)

  75. Milo’s a special little monkey

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  76. Milo’s a great conservative.
    Our friend nk is angry at him due to the fact they cover the same turf! (LOL — OUCH!)

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  77. #59

    Bravo, Haiku! You have a gift for description.

    You never hear the MSM calling Milo a Gay, Jewish Journalist and you never will. It would be far too confusing to those they work to indoctrinate.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  78. Our friend nk is angry at him due to the fact they cover the same turf!

    If you mean that I send a tingle up your leg and stir your underbrush like Milo does, just forget it! I don’t swing that way.

    nk (dbc370)

  79. Milk was a graduate student in info sciences who discovered in his bailiwick of video game review that the culture is no militantly pc than avowedly political sites

    narciso (9b1eec)

  80. 61… I disagree. I’ve never heard or read anything he’s said or written that I’ve found offensive. Flamboyant, yes… a little shocking, yes, on occasion. But not offensive. He promotes himself along with the idea that everyone has the right to express his or her opinion. That’s what I’ve taken from what I’ve seen over the last two years or so that he’s been on the scene.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  81. Milo wants to be offensive and trollish because he wants to shake things up with his view of the truth. Maybe the things he says need to be said but how is that different from the trolls on the left? We’ve become so partisan and immune from being shocked that it takes being offensive to get attention, let alone get elected.

    DRJ (15874d)

  82. So they tear up the town, they had a much less severe reaction to MAher, who is a real (redacted) yet ocasdionally gets one thing right

    narciso (d1f714)

  83. Ian Dabney Miller, we see you!

    File this under the “Things I’m Not Shocked to See” category. As it turns out, one of the “antifa” attackers from the Milo Yiannpoulos event in California the other night has been identified. Not only that, he draws a paycheck from the UC Berkeley administration. Shocking, I know. Well, at least one thing is surprising: that he’s this fucking stupid.

    If you’re going to brag about your assault activities, it’s best not to use online accounts that can be traced back to your real name and occupation. I would have thought they taught stuff like this in antifa commie class.

    http://theralphretort.com/uc-berkeley-rioter-exposed-works-university-203017/

    elissa (214bb7)

  84. Ian Dabney Miller, we see you!

    File this under the “Things I’m Not Shocked to See” category. As it turns out, one of the “antifa” attackers from the Milo Yiannpoulos event in California the other night has been identified. Not only that, he draws a paycheck from the UC Berkeley administration. Shocking, I know. Well, at least one thing is surprising: that he’s this “bleeping” stupid.

    If you’re going to brag about your assault activities, it’s best not to use online accounts that can be traced back to your real name and occupation. I would have thought they taught stuff like this in antifa commie class.

    http://theralphretort.com/uc-berkeley-rioter-exposed-works-university-203017/

    elissa (214bb7)

  85. Question to lawyer types–

    Do the tweets from “Eugene V. Dabs” bragging on his assault and that he took the guy “down to the ground” provide adequate proof for a reasonable lawsuit? Since he gave a phone interview from the scene to a New York newspaper using his own name, it does seem that he can’t claim he wasn’t there.

    elissa (214bb7)

  86. NO ONE has the right to not be offended!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  87. “SCOTT ADAMS ON “BERKELEY AND HITLER:” “I’m ending my support of UC Berkeley, where I got my MBA years ago…I’ve decided to side with the Jewish gay immigrant who has an African-American boyfriend, not the hypnotized zombie-boys in black masks who were clubbing people who hold different points of view. I feel that’s reasonable, but I know many will disagree, and possibly try to club me to death if I walk on campus.”

    https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/256430/

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  88. I think nk does not flee being edgy,
    but he reserves the right to be edgy on his own terms,
    just because,
    no catering to PC edginess necessary.

    But I could be wrong.

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  89. He’s kinda like Bob Dylan that way.

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  90. ThAT s how he rolls

    Bow that story about bannon going to see secretary newsfakenews (ht Karl markowitz

    narciso (d1f714)

  91. …Judd Apatow (Hollywood producer, writer, director, actor, and comedian) tweeted in reference to the Berkeley riots, “This is just the beginning. When will all the fools who are still supporting Trump realize what is at stake?”

    elissa (214bb7)

  92. I formed my opinion of Milo upon seeing this tweet of his after Ben Shapiro’s son was born:

    Milo on Ben Shapiro's Kid

    The “joke” — such as it is — is that Ben Shapiro is a “cuck,” which to these types means his wife sleeps with black men.

    Get it?

    I do not sanction people at Berkeley engaging in violence or vandalism because of Milo. But what happens when the left does bad things is that it causes some people to embrace bad people simply because the bad people are being attacked by the left.

    The type of man who posts a tweet like the one you just saw is a bad person. I wonder whether all the people praising Milo were aware of this. I wonder whether they will continue to praise him after they see it. And the fact that I don’t know whether this will make a difference to them . . . I don’t know. I just don’t know what to say any more.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  93. elissa, some things never change.
    Many in the UW-Madison community blame the university administration for the bombing in ’70 and the death of the grad student because they did not give in to the protesters’ demands,
    not just back then but even now.

    A bit of irony for people to demand that the fascists to be silenced, no matter what it takes, or there will be violence in the streets.
    The sarcastic view would be that if they damage univ buildings and classes of Leftist indoctrination can’t be held…

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  94. so you picked his most unflattering tweet out of the tweet sewer for to make an opinion?

    putting aside whatever context is lost

    that’s like if everyone made their glenn reynolds opinion based on his tweetings during his enthusiastic vehicular manslaughter period

    this just makes me hate douchebag Jack Dorsey’s incontinent twatter even more

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  95. There seems to be a need for people willing to tangle with “them” like Trump and Milo do,
    without the downsides of Trump and Milo.

    Where does one post that job description?

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  96. The type of man who posts a tweet like the one you just saw is a bad person.

    i can’t even handle this sentence

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  97. The unbelievable hypocrisy inherent in defending someone who posts that kind of tweet, which literally everyone here would condemn full-throatedly if posted by a leftist, is patently obvious to anyone who is not a mindless partisan.

    I’m not interested in talking with such people any more. There is no point to it.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  98. i’ve been steadfast in not jumping in on tweet-shaming dogpiles

    for serious you can go back and look

    you can always dredge the twitter sewer for one of those oh my goodness they’re so awful as you can see by this representative tweets posts

    but that’s just a way to avoid engaging with people and their ideas i think

    i pre-ordered Mr. Milo’s book cause of what they tried to do on his publisher

    they want to delegitimize him, you see

    for so they don’t have to engage him

    this worries me when i see this happen

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  99. Anybody who spends their time protesting leftist tweets needs to rethink their priorities. Life is too short. And it is very strange that when violence is perpetrated against Trump supporters, as in the Chicago riots, which Cruz dismissed, or Milo fans at Berkeley and the U. W., there is a very noticeable lack of concern by our host. Not to mention university administrators. Milo’s tale of having to be evacuated from the building by the Berkeley police after the rioters had taken control of the first floor, including a dash down the fire escape, is the sort of thing that could have ended very badly. If Nancy Pelosi told such a tale, and if it wasn’t a total fabrication like her march through the Tea Partiers after jamming ObamaCare down the country’ throat, I’d be very concerned. But I’m confident that those who share my view of the world would not do such a thing. Indeed, if Pelosi told such a tale, I’d be pretty sure the culprits were bought and paid for by someone who shared her view of the world, and who wanted to create another exploitable crisis.

    BobStewartatHome (c24491)

  100. oh here is some context albeit from the hard left but they use your same verbiage, even before you did

    The “joke” here, of course, is that Shapiro’s wife had sex with a black man. This is a not-very-veiled reference to the alt-right idea that effete progressive white men, as well as RINOs, secretly want to watch their white wives have sex with black people. “The idea is that you’re somebody who puts Western civilization in danger, because Western civilization is based on white supremacy, and so you are pandering to black people and minorities because you are desperate to have a minority person have sex with your wife,” explained Shapiro. “That’s why it’s an insult to these people. So there’s obviously a pure racist bent to the word cuck, and it’s been true a long time.”

    oh my goodness so bitter

    but let’s leave that aside cause of a lot of times these sort of intellectual contretemps are more than a little contrived cause of it’s useful for intellectuals to have other ones what they define themselves against (this has been going on forEVER I’m so not lying)

    and yes yes yes apparently the milo and the ben are doing feud on each other

    what strikes me though is how the Mr. Shapiro likes to call the Mr. Milo a “coward” all the time

    and Mr. Milo does not seem particularly cowardly to me so this is how to say

    discordant

    I think America is big enough for both of them me personally and I think they both have interesting things to say

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  101. #91… a shameful tweet that makes me happy I avoid Twitter. Sounds like some scores were being settled.

    I also avoid CNN, as it’s a place filled with hate, agenda-driven disinformation and despicable lies.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  102. And it is very strange that when violence is perpetrated against Trump supporters, as in the Chicago riots, which Cruz dismissed, or Milo fans at Berkeley and the U. W., there is a very noticeable lack of concern by our host

    Please retract this lie.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  103. BobStewartatHome’s false allegations are a dishonest attack on Cruz as welll as me.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  104. This is why I hate commenting here. I have to stop.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  105. Apparently, the tweet to Ben Shapiro by Milo in May 2016 was merely a part of the ribbing that they do to each other. It should be viewed in that context.
    Milo likes to play on the caricatures that the left has of conservatives, and that’s reflected in the tweet in question.

    For instance, here’s a recent back-and-forth.

    https://www.gorillaradio.tv/gr_news/milo-yiannopoulos-and-ben-shapiro-hilariously-throw-down-on-twitter/

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  106. Ted Cruz said that the Trump campaign had “created an environment that only encourages this sort of nasty discord… I think a campaign bears responsibility for creating an environment, when the candidate urges supporters to engage in physical violence–to punch people in the face. The predictable consequence of that is that it escalates and today is unlikely to be the last such instance… that’s not how our politics should occur.”

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  107. Looks like Cruz did say some regrettable things at an appearance 25 miles outside Chicago that very same night.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  108. oh poor harvardtrash Ted

    he wants so bad to explain to us how our politics should occur

    but he doesn’t have the conch

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  109. Apparently, the tweet to Ben Shapiro by Milo in May 2016 was merely a part of the ribbing that they do to each other.

    Fake News. “Ribbing” falsely implies it was good-natured and Shapiro took it as such. That is made up by you because you are a partisan hack and you have ZERO evidence for it. Ergo Fake News.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  110. they’re both ultimately on the same side though

    freedom i won’t let you down i will not give you up

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  111. For instance, here’s a recent back-and-forth.

    Fake News. All tweets from Milo.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  112. ==The “joke” — such as it is — is that Ben Shapiro is a “cuck,” which to these types means his wife sleeps with black men. Get it?==

    Actually no, I don’t “get it” that way at all. Ben is short and that is part of their ongoing schtick. And I’m pretty sure Milo of all people is joking around about Ben’s wife sleeping with black men because his own boyfriend is black.

    Ben and Milo have been tweaking and insulting each other in raging twitter wars and elsewhere for months. (Such as Ben saying that Milo would die of syphilis) They have both said egregious things to each other and about each other. Most people who aren’t too invested in the battle between them seem to think it’s mostly for show and most of it (not all) is tongue in cheek. Twitter is not a good venue or lens through which to gauge people’s inherent worth–especially a single tweet without knowing what may have come before or after . This is why I have no love of twitter. It has some value I suppose, for immediate news dissemination but I wish everyone including our president would cool it down on using twitter.

    Here are two of Ben’s tweets about Milo
    *At parties, @Nero (Milo) keeps getting mistaken for the fondue fountain, because everybody gets a taste.

    *Nero (Milo) keeps ripping on my height (5’9″), but I’m not sure how he knows how tall I am, considering he spends all his time on his knees.

    Anyway, Milo has been banned from twitter so that big problem is solved.

    Multiple ISIS accounts still remain on twitter, however.

    FBI Director James Comey described ISIS’s Twitter strategy at the Aspen Institute in July:

    “ISIL’s M.O. is they broadcast on Twitter, get people to follow them, then move them to Twitter Direct Messaging while they evaluate whether they’re a potential liaison either to travel or to kill where they are. Then they’ll move them to an encrypted mobile-messaging app, so they go dark to us.”

    In the face of such a growing threat, FBI officials in Washington, D.C., have concerns that Twitter is not doing everything it can to combat terrorism. They are urging Twitter to:

    “Set up teams to troll, monitor and review all terrorist-related tweets and content. It needs to build up its budget for these teams and let these teams grow even bigger.”

    http://ijr.com/2015/08/380544-how-isis-made-twitter-one-of-its-main-recruiting-tools-and-what-can-be-done-about-it/.

    elissa (214bb7)

  113. The Colonel sez:

    Ted Cruz said that the Trump campaign had “created an environment that only encourages this sort of nasty discord… I think a campaign bears responsibility for creating an environment, when the candidate urges supporters to engage in physical violence–to punch people in the face. The predictable consequence of that is that it escalates and today is unlikely to be the last such instance… that’s not how our politics should occur.”

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/4/2017 @ 2:00 pm

    The Colonel’s quote is Fake News. The ellipsis is the giveaway. Here is a real non-fake quote [updated to note this is not the same quote, but the ellipses in the above quote are very suspicious especially in light of what you are about to read]

    We need to learn to have disagreements without being disagreeable. To have disagreements while respecting human beings on the other side. Earlier today over thirty people were arrested at one rally. And then tonight, as violence broke out, the rally was canceled all together. Now, the responsibility for that lies with protesters who took violence into their own hands. But in any campaign responsibility starts at the top. Any candidate who is responsible for the culture of the campaign. And when you have a campaign that disrespects the voters, when you have a campaign that affirmatively encourages violence, when you have a campaign that is facing allegations of physical violence against members of the press, you create an environment that only encourages this sort of nasty discourse.

    I noticed no link. Hoft, Colonel? Cernovich? Who punked you?

    Patterico (115b1f)

  114. at the end of the day they’d both run into a burning building to save the other

    as long as it looked like there was a reasonable chance of performing a successful rescue anyways

    that’s just who they are

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  115. I know for a fact that Shapiro did not take this as good-natured ribbing. A fact. I’ll bet anyone here $10,000 to that effect. Believe me or don’t, but if you’re making excuses for Milo on this one you’re covering for a bad guy. Your choice.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  116. I think Milo adds value

    as does Mr. Ben

    so I thought about it today and decided they both can stay on the island

    done and done

    we’ll all just have to learn to live in a whirl what has both a Ben and a Milo

    if all else fails

    there’s still xanax

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  117. but honestly

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  118. I liked this feud more better the first time when it was Madonna vs. Lady Gaga

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  119. Ultimately, I think Milo and Ben both know that the real enemy is the Left.
    Milo pokes fun at Ben’s lack of height, and Ben pokes fun at Milo’s sexual preference.
    We can all laugh at it.

    On the other hand, the Lefties were breaking windows, setting fires, and sucker-punching people in Berzerkeley.

    Violence & arson > tasteless tweets

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  120. What was said in the Colonel’s ellipses? Where is the suspicion of the media? Why does every clip I see begin with the quote after the ellipsis? What is the media cutting out? Why am I the only one asking this question?

    Patterico (115b1f)

  121. Ultimately, I think Milo and Ben both know that the real enemy is the Left.
    Milo pokes fun at Ben’s lack of height, and Ben pokes fun at Milo’s sexual preference.
    We can all laugh at it.

    Milo jokes that Ben was cuckolded by a black man. Ben does not find it funny. I promise you that (and offer to bet you a staggering amount of money if you disagree). You spin like a fucking top because this is what people like you do.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  122. Mr happyfeet, yes, yes, I’m happy to have both Mr Milo and Mr Ben remain on the island. And let’s keep that Gilligan fellow, too. He’s good for physical comedy!
    … and that Ginger chick looks like she’s good for physical whatever. (LOL)

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  123. Violence & arson > tasteless tweets

    Yup. Of that there is no doubt. But you say that like it’s fucking meaningful. Like it’s a brilliant observation. I’m just refuting all the praise for a guy who is a professional asshole. That people riot over you does NOT make you a good person.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  124. Patterico,

    Isn’t Milo’s boyfriend a black man?

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  125. Now, the responsibility for that lies with protesters who took violence into their own hands. But in any campaign responsibility starts at the top.

    thanks ted great to hear from you please to give carly pupperoni a nice scritching behind the ears for us

    memreez

    lite the corncobs of my mine

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  126. For the benefit of any good people wasting their time, I am putting this comment thread out of its misery.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  127. I’m reopening to make this one comment:

    The quote I gave above, where Cruz denounces violence, is indeed from the very same remarks that the Colonel dishonestly quoted with all the ellipses.

    Video:

    A good article with generous, non-misleading quotes from his remarks is here

    The Colonel’s quote was dishonest. I’m tired of my comment threads being used for dishonesty.

    I now return this thread to its previous dead state.

    Patterico (115b1f)


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