Maybe the media really is the enemy

I'm always the last one in the room to see a conspiracy, but it's now impossible to ignore the fact that every significant recent error by the national media is anti-Republican, anti-conservative, or anti-Trump. How can this be accidental?

A few examples:

During coverage of the 2012 Aurora shooting, Brian Ross of ABC suggested on the air a connection between a member of a Colorado Tea Party group and the shooting, based on the gunman's name, without any confirmed evidence.

On December 2, 2017, Brian Ross was given a four-week suspension without pay after erroneously stating during a special report that Michael Flynn was preparing to testify that Donald Trump had directed him to make contact with Russian officials during his presidential campaign.

In January, 2017, Buzzfeed reported that
A dossier making explosive — but unverified — allegations that the Russian government has been “cultivating, supporting and assisting” President-elect Donald Trump for years and gained compromising information about him has been circulating among elected officials, intelligence agents, and journalists for weeks. The dossier, which is a collection of memos written over a period of months, includes specific, unverified, and potentially unverifiable allegations of contact between Trump aides and Russian operatives, and graphic claims of sexual acts documented by the Russians.

Last year, after a man shot up Republicans’ congressional baseball practice in May, the New York Times used a debunked conspiracy theory to attack Palin, the former Alaska governor, in an editorial. The paper baselessly linked her campaign messaging to the shooting of then-Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., in 2011.

In December, NBC wrote a report criticizing Trump for not visiting the troops. When the story broke, Trump was in Iraq.

Last week, Buzzfeed reported that Trump told Michael Cohen to lie to Congress. The reporters and editors involved are standing by the story, despite a rare statement from special counsel Robert Mueller’s office calling parts of their reporting inaccurate.

Now virtually all media outlets other than Fox are running with the story that high schoolers attending a prolife rally were aggressively harassing an Indian peacefully tapping out a song on his drum. "Build the wall!" the reporters claimed the kids said. (They didn't, but so what if they had?) The new video evidence, they say shows that the story is "more complicated" than originally thought. How about just wrong?

(A major Hollywood producer fantasized about feeding the putative leader of the little Nazis, who was neither leader nor Nazi, into a woodchipper. Is there any question but that he is a Democrat?)

Yes, we all make mistakes. But why do the media's mistakes all skew left, or at least anti-Trump and anyone who might be a supporter of his? In craps, you can't roll 7's every single time. Unless the die are fixed.

 

If anyone considers Fox (COMEDY) "News" to be part of the "media", you may have a valid thesis.

 

How about these media reports? Are they wrong, too?

There may be something to that BuzzFeed article after all. Keep in mind, Mueller never said BuzzFeed's accusations were false. Mueller was solely concerned about the evidence his investigators had dug up.

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said during the Presidential campaign.

"I think that we would have a chance to have a very good relationship with Russia and a very good chance -- a very good relationship with President Putin." "You know what? Putin's fine. He's fine. We're all fine," Trump said during the Presidential campaign.

Putin's main adversary is NATO. Trump had this to say about NATO in January 2017. “It’s obsolete, first because it was designed many, many years ago. Secondly, countries aren’t paying what they should and NATO didn’t deal with terrorism.”

During the Helsinki summit, Trump said he addressed Russia's interference in the U.S. 2016 election and that Putin was "extremely strong" in his denials. "I have President Putin, he just said it's not Russia. I will say this. I don't see any reason why it would be," Trump said. He continued: “So I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”

Trump has never forcefully admitted that Russia, and Russia alone, was responsible for interfering in our Presidential election. Our intelligence agencies place the blame squarely on Moscow and for Trump's benefit.

Trump recently ordered U.S. forces out of Syria, ceding the region to Russia.

Trump wants $5.7B for a border wall. In December, the Senate passed a CR knowing Trump agreed to sign it. Trump changed his mind and shut the government down, saying he was proud to do so. “If we don’t get what we want, one way or the other, whether it’s through you, through military, through anything you want to call, I will shut down the government,” Trump said. “And I am proud. I’ll tell you what. I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck.

Yes, there may be something to that BuzzFeed article. Trump appears eager to please the Russian government. He hired people like Cohen, Manafort and Gates, who had deep Russian connections, to do the dirty work.

 

I see that Sheryl Atkkinson is today compiling a similar but much more extensive list. That is a complete coincidence.

Note to everyone, especially including you all above: the title of this thread is not "Donald Trump, greatest President of all time!!!" You don't like him. Because he's a "fascist."

This thread is about the national media. Get that straight first, if you can, and then I'll be happy to exchange views regarding the reason for their errors. Deep down, I think you must know the answer: they're Democrats.

 

This has been going on my whole adult life, all the way back to MSM poisoning the VN War. Bernard Goldberg and Sharyl Attkisson, both centrist, reputable journalists, have written books about the bias in the past, as have many others. The difference is that now all us little people have that garlic necklace, crucifix power of the internet to pull the vampire out of the crypt and into the light. This was not always so through much of my adult life.

So to the topic, why the bias? Well it's not too difficult and nowhere remotely close to a conspiracy.

1. Despite common errors of understanding, viewers are not the customers of -any- media that relies on advertisers for revenues. Advertisers are. You pay a subscription? That's chump change, you aren't the focus, the advertiser always is.
2. Mass market advertising is centered around mass market products. You CAN advertise a Bentley or private island, but the prospective market for such is so small that any money spent that way is wasted. Mass media is mostly used to promote small dollar entertainment and consumer goods and services purchases. Stuff that everyone wants or needs to buy.
3. Upper middle class household will buy only -one- Swiffer mop, if any. But take the maximum amount of taxation from that household and distribute it to ten other households, and voila! Suddenly ten extra Swiffer mops can be sold. Or ten bottles of soda and bags of chips that the middle class household might NEVER buy otherwise.
4. The MSM runs on redistribution. They know full well that we are not going to become full-on socialist, and they most certainly DON'T want that themselves. They are capitalists just like everyone else, use socialism to fool weak-minded people. They want the maximum possible tax rates on taxpayers and businesses though, because it benefits their customers, the advertiser. The media rakes in FAR more in profits from redistribution than it pays in taxes.
5. But that's not all. People who feel bad buy more, more pills, booze, cigs, guns, comfort food, lottery tickets and a whole host of other things. They buy more junk food, and then turn around and buy more remedies for that when it makes them sick and diseased. They save less, why bother? The enemy is at the gates, party like it's 1999! Spend spend spend.
6. The MSM has a vested interest in making the public as scared, sick, divided, decadent and mentally unhealthy as possible. Those people buy more as a matter of well-documented scientific fact.

So yes, the MSM IS, in a very real way, the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE in the exact same way as the abattoir proprietor is the enemy of the sheep and cow. The MSM feeds off of societal misery in the exact same ways that the government and all its rotten tributaries, beneficiaries do. This is why I point out the true divide in the U.S., the taxpayers of the non government-dependent private sector versus the gov-edu-union-contractor-grantee-trial lawyer-MSM Complex so frequently and obnoxiously. It's critically important that people begin to realize the true division in this country, where they fit in the continuum, in order for them to plan and think accordingly.

 

What is to be done with the "enemy" of the people, as Trump calls them?

 

I'm still disappointed that commentators who know better refuse to jump ship and start their own company, or jump to Fox, or write more exposés like Goldberg and Atkisson did. I think the Chris Matthewses, the Brian Stelters, the George Yionnapoulises (sp?), and the Chuck Todds, the Michelle Goldbergs, are all true believers in the liberal cause.

 

Saying the media is the enemy is saying the free press is the enemy. The 1A is the enemy, the television is the enemy, that there should be no accountability on those in power. That is your position. Trump wants yes men, his whole life has been surrounded around yes men and he has fired or simply ripped off people he has disagreed with. NY tabloids gave him what he wanted to read and hear. If you cannot come to the realization that Trump has always wanted to be surrounded around yes men, and no one but yes men like Hannity and Tucker Carlson, you cannot speak ill of the media.

 

Not saying I agree with the OP, but this is a pretty egregiously false comparison you tried to make.

Equating "the media" with "free speech" is laughable at best, the idea of having free speech is of utmost importance. But trying to say that someone who is calling out a corrupt business is "against free speech" is nothing more than an NPC comment.

 

The 1A and the free press is everyone. Its you and I recording things we see or writing about them.

People who get paid to do it end up doing it with the inherent bias of those paying them. And when that bias goes to far, we should call them out.

Thats what OP is doing.

 

I think ALL media outlets are making errors in their reporting. And it is down to the 'need to be first' as opposed to the 'need to be right'.

 

What's sad is when the MSM is caught giving out Fake News some in the media will continue to defend it. What is also sad is the posters here on PF also defend Fake News after it has been proven fake. Yes, some in the media are the enemy. We citizens must have the intellect and honesty to call them out on it. Never defend a lie once you know it's a lie. If you do this you look like a nut.

 

The Founding Fathers gave constitutional rights to a free press with the assumption that that they wold government accountable with honest, ethical and unbiased news coverage. That hasn't been the case since the early 1960's. So, yes, the news media has become the enemy of the American people because they act as the PR wing for the democratic party, with hold facts that don't fit the narrative they are trying to create, don't verify sources as they used to do and in many cases, outright lie The left will dispute this assertion, but they don't understand the danger to democracy of a biased, unethical news media, which could help bring about a dictatorship by misleading the American people!

 

You mentioned the most obvious evidence that there are enemies among the media. A friend of Loughner's reported that he hated Giffords because she wasn't a radical leftist --- hated her so much that he through a temper tantrum that exceeded the signature Democrat temper tantrums after a similar talk in Phoenix a year earlier. The assassination attempt on January 8, 2011 followed a January 5, 2011 attack by dailyKos because Giffords voted against Nancy Pelosi for Minority Leader on January 3, 2011. Some might refer to the post by BoyBlue on dailyKos a HIT as he mentioned that she was dead to him. A Google search I did while watching the aftermath took me to BoyBlue's post. Less than an hour later, Google swept searches away from dailyKos to BoyBlue's alibi for posting what might have been interpreted as a call for Gifford's assassination.

If I hadn't followed the tracks myself, I wouldn't have believed such animals are living among us, covered up by the media and internet media giants.

 

" media really is the enemy"...Mussolini thought so....

 

Having trouble thinking of any one of those mistakes or missteps for which Trump himself hasn't made a similar mistake or misstep.

 

Well clearly they need to be sent to the gulag....and then we go after the intellectuals

 

This is the new pattern of left wing media outlets
1) give fake news
2) silently retract it (by this time that fake news is real news to most people)
3) rinse and repeat

 

Just think for a minute....how did the right wing get so powerless with the media?

 

I would point out that the free press doesn't seem to be anywhere present in this conversation. The press that you're referring to are neither "free" nor do they have the public interest at heart anymore. What they do want are compliant quiet consumers to which they can sell their advertising. Sick people, scared people, theoretically spend more money, save less, and become vastly more dependent that then fuels the cycle of conflict all over again.

There truly is a difference between news reporting and media entertainment. Likely, you are unable to distinguish between the two. You might speculate about the president, but we can actually demonstrate factually the premise of media bias and the root cause of it. All one has to do is ask why Liz Warren would ever film herself attempting to be Archie Bunker throwing back a beer with gusto. It was cringe worthy horrid focus group driven spectacle. And the Left uniformly cheered as she did it.

 

The free press is what the media is, so yes it is present in the conversation:

NBC and Fox are both part of the media. They’re both broadcast to the nation the same way, but only have different biases. It’s not media bias to point out how many times Gulilani has flip flopped on the Russia issue, at times contradicting himself. Warren drinking a beer is entertainment, reporting the fact Manafort and the Russians worked together on the campaign is news.

Yes, I can distinguish betweeen the two.

 

And how many times did Fox go after Obama and his admin, as well as other conservative outlets during his time on the White House? Countless times.

 

You said that, I didn't. My remedy is to ignore them as much as possible. I listen to CBS radio news, which I really do deem fair and balanced. News updates every 20 minutes with no commentary, and no slant. "President Trump said this. And Nancy Pelosi said that. Up next, you local weather."

 

Enemies of the people? No we crush those

 

Yes, exactly.

You know, it's very hard to have debates with people like you.