Two-faced January

Few things typify two-faced January (Janus) better the media. Barely are we into the year than that Institution of many parts and many nonebrities has accelerated its 'fake news' output beyond all the predictions of the psychics -  the media's competitors, who just as typically got the near future all wrong. And we in the Tavern sat back to watch the mayhem and sink a few pints along with the floundering reputations of the hoity toities. I had to counsel even m'self to refrain from the attractive sins that  even exposure to lies propel us. 

Sins, eh, said someone. Yes, they lie in wait in the weeds ready to drag us down. Make no excuses: sins are those actions, omissions, the thoughts, the 'feelings' entertained and relished, that distance us from God by damaging our 'psyche' (soul). They call to us like sirens. The media are the modern sirens.

The bars have been crowded with the voices of customers putting their two penn'th in, such that two posts will barely suffice and enable me to untangle the obvious sins, the sinners and the not-so-obvious ones of both. So, this and the one to follow will seek some  exposures and enlightening.

John Nolte kicked off:

Four Massive Media Hoaxes in First Three Weeks of 2019

We are only three weeks into 2019, a mere 22 days, and already the establishment media have hit us with four massive hoaxes, four flaming piles of fake news.

Led primarily by CNN, the Washington Post, BuzzFeed, NBC News, and the New York Times — the same media that have spent two years crybabying about being labeled fake news — have already run these cons on the American people with a full week still left in the first month of this new year.

 https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2019/01/22/nolte-four-massive-media-hoaxes-in-first-three-weeks-of-2019/

Worst still, the media continue to stand by these debunked hoaxes, including one that resulted in death threats against children.

Does anyone still want to argue fake news is not the enemy of the people?

After this trip down memory lane, I doubt it:

1. Media Lie About Conservatives Outraged Over Dancing Video

The media opened the year on a stupid note with a wave of fake news that claimed, without any evidence (because there was none), conservatives had become outraged by a video of Socialist It Girl, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), getting her groove on in high school.

You know, because we’re all the dad in Footloose.

“Dance-off: Attempt to shame Ocasio-Cortez with video backfires,” howled Reuters.

“Bid to embarrass Ocasio-Cortez backfires,” screamed the far-left CNN on at least five occasions on YouTube alone.

“Conservatives mock Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for college dancing video, everyone else thinks it’s adorable,” reported something called a Newsweek.

And on and on…

Just why even the most buttoned-up conservative would be  'Outraged' by a young woman dancing (if it can be called that) even a young woman so obviously marked by ignorance, beats me. But we are expected to believe that !

Memo to media: If you are going to lie, at least make it credible. At least they got the 'backfire' bit right. The ones who it backfired upon ?- they got that wrong too.

Other than the fact that there was not even one example of a conservative doing anything more than shrugging the video off or agreeing it was a charming video of a high school girl acting like a high school girl, the story was 100 percent fake news, totally fabricated, conjured from whole cloth.

End Result: No retractions, corrections, or apologies.

2. Media Spread Homophobic Conspiracy Theory About Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

Somehow, between their hoax about conservative outrage over a dancing Marxist and their malicious hoax about Lindsey Graham being a homosexual Manchurian candidate, the media were able to offer Americans nine whole days without spreading fake news.

But then the dam broke as CNN and MSNBC sought to bully Graham over his recent support for President Trump.

According to CNN and MSNBC, the only reason Graham supports Trump is because Trump has proof that Graham is a closet homosexual.

So, Trump is somehow, what, 'blackmailing' someone over and assumed sexual proclivity that the rest of that society gives kudos to, along with court support if anyone dares to refuse to make a cake for them? Oh, come on ! 

If the Prince of Lies does training exercises for minor demons, he sure starts off with a low bar.

End Result: No retractions, corrections, or apologies.

3. Media Lie About Trump Suborning Perjury

Just a couple days after spreading that conspiracy theory against Graham, the media began to work its way into a Fake News Frenzy after the far-left BuzzFeed published the ludicrous claim President Trump told his then-personal attorney to lie to Congress about a real estate deal.

As Breitbart News pointed out at the time, the story was absurd on its face. To begin with, the lead reporter is a serial fabulist, the story was based on two anonymous sources, and BuzzFeed was forced to admit it had no proof to back up the claim.

Nevertheless, for some 36 hours, an unquestioning media screamed IMPEACHMENT, at least until no less than Special Counsel Robert Mueller fact-checked the BuzzFeed story and declared it fake news.

From the word go, the media knew this story was a lie. 

But they also knew Trump was in a box because there was no way he could prove a negative, that he had not done some something. Never in a million years did they believe Mueller would drop a piano on them.

End Result: 

No retractions, corrections, or apologies

The far-left BuzzFeed is sticking by its fake news, and even though the horse’s mouth declared it fake news, the rest of the media are following suit in defending the story.

4. Media Launch Online Hate Crime Against Covington High School Kids

Desperate to get the BuzzFeed fiasco off the Sunday front page, and based solely on selectively-edited video and their own seething hatred of Trump supporters, the media launched a rage-fueled jihad against — get this — kids, teenagers… And all of it proved to be a lie.

The full video proves an American Indian activist sought and failed to provoke these kids, who were guilty of nothing more than minding their own business.

What’s more, these kids were verbally abused for the better part of an hour by a group of black nationalists hurling racial and homophobic slurs.

Through it all, the MAGA-supporting kids remained cheerful, which kept the situation from escalating.

End Result: These innocent kids, their families, and their school are facing death threats, while Maggie Haberman of the New York Times and the Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty refuse to retract their proven lies and CNN’s Kirsten Powers is STILL falsely accusing them of using the N-word:

If you think the media are despicable and dishonest now, wait till the 2020 presidential election — you haven’t seen anything yet.

There was quite a bit of talk about the Covington Catholic Boys and I will get to that in the next post, as it concerns all of us. And the many sins that you may not have even considered, that weigh that incident down. Unless there is much repenting, many souls will sink into Hell over it, millstones attached to their necks. 

The media liars have much to repent: much retraction to do; many apologies to make. Confession is good for the soul but may cause a career change as they get fired. Not that many will do any of that or suffer any consequence. 

And to round this round off before I had to recharge everyone's glasses, we heard of a fine charge by Mrs Trump's lawyers. Andrew Bolt brought the good news and some fake news 'end result'.

FAKE NEWS SHAME: PAPER APOLOGISES FOR TRASHING MELANIA TRUMP

Now London's Telegraph pays "substantial damages" to Melania Trump and issues a shopping list of corrections to "false statements" in an article last week that trashed her. 

The apology is extraordinary long and extraordinarily swift:

""Following last Saturday’s (Jan 19) Telegraph magazine cover story “The mystery of Melania”, we have been asked to make clear that the article contained a number of false statements which we accept should not have been published. 

Mrs Trump’s father was not a fearsome presence and did not control the family. 

Mrs Trump did not leave her Design and Architecture course at University relating to the completion of an exam, as alleged in the article, but rather because she wanted to pursue a successful career as a professional model. 

Mrs Trump was not struggling in her modelling career before she met Mr Trump, and she did not advance in her career due to the assistance of Mr Trump.

We accept that Mrs Trump was a successful professional model in her own right before she met her husband and obtained her own modelling work without his assistance. Mrs Trump met Mr Trump in 1998, not in 1996 as stated in the article. 

The article also wrongly claimed that Mrs Trump’s mother, father and sister relocated to New York in 2005 to live in buildings owned by Mr Trump. They did not. 

The claim that Mrs Trump cried on election night is also false.

We apologise unreservedly to The First Lady and her family for any embarrassment caused by our publication of these allegations. As a mark of our regret we have agreed to pay Mrs Trump substantial damages as well as her legal costs.""

So which writer got so much wrong, and so maliciously wrong?

The article, written by Nina Burleigh, who works for Newsweek as national politics correspondent, was an excerpt of her upcoming book Golden Handcuffs: The Secret History of Trump's Women.

Burleigh is of the media's establishment Left, actually teaching her brand of "journalism": 

She is an adjunct professor at Columbia University's graduate school of journalism.

A contributing editor at Salon.com and Elle magazine, her work has also appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, and Time magazine, among others. 

And she refuses to admit to her many errors, despite the Telegraph pulling her piece and paying damages:

When reached for comment by The Daily Beast, Burleigh noted, "...The book has been out since October, and excerpted widely in various U.S. publications without a peep of objection. I stand by my reporting."

"Reporting" seems a very loose term. Burleigh's problem here seems to be that Britain has tougher libel laws than the US, where the media is much freer to publish falsehoods.

You might think it is easy to spot a lie: spot liars. It isn't. Especially today when we are bombarded by confusing 'information', data, opinion, news and complete fakery designed to confuse even further. 

Our propensity to 'react' before knowing sufficient facts to form an educated opinion leads the unwary into swamps. We become complicit, if not in the fakery itself, then in a myriad other sins that the 'occasion' presents.

The Black Pidgeon had something to say about appalling journalists too. He advises them to 'learn how to code' for when they get fired. That is what journalists advised coal miners in America who had lost their jobs. Fitting reposte. 

That brings us onto the next post. The Covington Scandal.

Before the Chef sets to getting it ready for you, I shall pull pints and pour a round of drinks. It is getting crowded in here.

We will need all the Grace we can get.

Pax.