Trump's War on Factual News Journalism.
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hanimmal
Well-Known Member
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/head-of-government-media-agency-flouts-subpoena-angering-democrats-and-republicans/2020/09/24/d5aa8296-fe76-11ea-b555-4d71a9254f4b_story.html
The head of the government’s main international broadcasting agency flouted a subpoena for congressional testimony Thursday, angering both Democrats and Republicans already alarmed by his management tactics.
Michael Pack, chief executive of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America and similar institutions, was issued a subpoena by the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week after he reneged on a promise to appear before the panel citing unspecified “administrative proceedings,” according to the panel’s chairman, Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.)
Engel said Thursday that Pack “manufactured this conflict to get out of being here today.”
Spokesmen for the U.S. Agency for Global Media did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Pack has been the subject of intense scrutiny and controversy that commenced before he was confirmed to his position less than four months ago. In his brief tenure, he has ousted the heads of VOA’s sister operations Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks and the Open Technology Fund, frozen spending, and refused to renew the visas of foreign journalists — a move he has defended as an effort to root out potential spies.
Democrats have been calling for Pack’s ouster, pointing to those and other unorthodox management decisions.
Pack is the “wrong person for the job, he should resign, and if he doesn’t, the president should fire him,” Engel said Thursday, speaking before an empty chair that had been set up for Pack.
Pack’s tactics have also upset Republicans. During Thursday’s hearing, the top Republican on the committee, Rep. Michael T. McCaul (Tex.), drew attention to the consequences of Pack’s decision to freeze spending for the Open Technology Fund in particular. The fund’s leaders were reinstated by court order over the summer.
“I believe his actions damaged support during the heights of unrest in Hong Kong, and they are continuing to do so today in Belarus,” McCaul said, referring to public demonstrations against authoritarian regimes in both places. He also accused Pack of ignoring “the will of Congress” as well as “basic questions” the committee has asked him in other matters.
“This committee deserves the respect of a response,” McCaul said. “I believe there’s some reform that needs to be done . . . but I don’t think we should throw the baby out with the bathwater here.”
The head of the government’s main international broadcasting agency flouted a subpoena for congressional testimony Thursday, angering both Democrats and Republicans already alarmed by his management tactics.
Michael Pack, chief executive of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America and similar institutions, was issued a subpoena by the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week after he reneged on a promise to appear before the panel citing unspecified “administrative proceedings,” according to the panel’s chairman, Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.)
Engel said Thursday that Pack “manufactured this conflict to get out of being here today.”
Spokesmen for the U.S. Agency for Global Media did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Pack has been the subject of intense scrutiny and controversy that commenced before he was confirmed to his position less than four months ago. In his brief tenure, he has ousted the heads of VOA’s sister operations Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks and the Open Technology Fund, frozen spending, and refused to renew the visas of foreign journalists — a move he has defended as an effort to root out potential spies.
Democrats have been calling for Pack’s ouster, pointing to those and other unorthodox management decisions.
Pack is the “wrong person for the job, he should resign, and if he doesn’t, the president should fire him,” Engel said Thursday, speaking before an empty chair that had been set up for Pack.
Pack’s tactics have also upset Republicans. During Thursday’s hearing, the top Republican on the committee, Rep. Michael T. McCaul (Tex.), drew attention to the consequences of Pack’s decision to freeze spending for the Open Technology Fund in particular. The fund’s leaders were reinstated by court order over the summer.
“I believe his actions damaged support during the heights of unrest in Hong Kong, and they are continuing to do so today in Belarus,” McCaul said, referring to public demonstrations against authoritarian regimes in both places. He also accused Pack of ignoring “the will of Congress” as well as “basic questions” the committee has asked him in other matters.
“This committee deserves the respect of a response,” McCaul said. “I believe there’s some reform that needs to be done . . . but I don’t think we should throw the baby out with the bathwater here.”
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
Closer, still not quite right yet.
BORAT 2 (Trailer)
The full title of the movie is "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan". The direct sequel to the 2006 film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. ‘Borat...worldstar.com
Just to bring a little humor in here... lol This MF dresses up as Trump
That is awesome. You would think her being the press secretary to the president of the United States of America would mean that she would understand that as a journalist if he could get the name of the river these ballots Trump likely lied about, he could then do some investigative journalism and expose what is happening to the world. Her dig about them not being curious is exactly the opposite of what was taking place.
Herb & Suds
Well-Known Member
rkymtnman
Well-Known Member
sounds like the work of the Koch Brothers starting a false flag narrative about mail in balloting.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
At least likely one of their money is anyways.
rkymtnman
Well-Known Member
hell, the right blames everything on Soros so it seems only fair to blame the richest GOP
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
First 1:30 of this video is Fox John Roberts getting sick of the stupidity. I am not sure about this uploader, but for some reason it is not loaded up on many clips yet and none by credible sources yet. Still worth watching something other than Dear Leader's super spreading events.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/02/tired-it-fox-reporter-clean-up-your-own-house/
John Roberts, Fox News’s chief White House correspondent, grew frustrated with White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Thursday when she would not give a definitive statement that President Trump denounces white supremacists after he refused to do so in the presidential debate Tuesday. He later lost patience, saying: “Stop deflecting. Stop blaming the media,” Roberts declared. “I’m tired of it!” Really?
Let’s stipulate that Roberts is not akin to the “Fox & Friends” hosts or Fox’s evening lineup of Trump sycophants when it comes to distorting reality and cheerleading Trump. (Disclosure: I am an MSNBC contributor.) However, the White House has been deflecting like this for nearly four years. It has refused to answer all sorts of questions about Russian President Vladimir Putin, about Trump’s finances, about Trump’s embrace of racists and about any topic that would reveal Trump to be clueless or malicious. McEnany is just the most egregious practitioner of the non-response or the out-and-out falsehood. Roberts cannot possibly have just figured this out.
Roberts should look closer to home, if he’s “tired of it.” It is his network that allows Trump on air to spin bizarre conspiracy theories and blatant lies about his opponent. It is Fox News that has become a cesspool of anti-democratic (small “d”) and racist tropes. It is Fox News that tries to avoid — or to borrow a word, “deflects” — topics injurious to Trump, such as the New York Times bombshell about his taxes. It is his network that followed Trump’s anti-mask sneering. It is Fox News that has denigrated Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, and defended Trump’s covid-19 inanities — until he declares he was joking or being sarcastic. Even its “straight news” anchor Bret Baier went on air before the presidential debate to treat wild conspiracy theories about former vice president Joe Biden cheating at the debate as a serious story. It is Fox News that repeats Russian propaganda debunked by our intelligence community and the Senate Intelligence Committee concerning Ukraine.
It would be hard to find one entity on the planet more responsible than John Roberts’s employer for enabling Trump, keeping his base in line, misleading the public about Trump’s corruption, excusing his culpability and giving him a sense of invincibility. It is not the only one, but it certainly leads the pack of Pravda-like outlets whose job is to defend Trump by deceiving viewers and readers if need be.
And speaking of Fox News’s role in creating and sustaining the Trump phenomenon, what exactly does the network do if and when Trump loses and the story of Trump’s unfitness, incompetence and the rest comes tumbling out? I suppose it would decline to cover that as well.
But in the end (we are reaching the end, right?), Fox News aggravated Trump’s worst tendencies and put him in a feedback loop. He comfortably inhabited a parallel reality and therefore never learned to function in our reality. He could always count on Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson or “Fox & Friends” to reinforce his delusions. Fox News has encouraged him and its viewers to downplay the coronavirus, literally putting Americans’ lives at risk. Fox News might have sustained Trump for a few years, but it has left him entirely vulnerable to a real opponent with real facts. And if the goal was to bolster the views of its viewers, Fox News wound up deluding them as well.
Fox News did accomplish one thing: It made a ton of money. It might be money gained at the expense of our democracy and of thousands of American lives, but it did deliver for its stock owners. Think of it as the political equivalent of blood diamonds. I do wonder in the quiet moments whether Fox News’s board of directors, senior management and stockholders think it was worth it. Are they proud of their handiwork?
As for Roberts, if he really is tired, he might consider leaving his present position. No one would blame him for deciding not to work for a propaganda machine thinly disguised as a news network.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/02/tired-it-fox-reporter-clean-up-your-own-house/
John Roberts, Fox News’s chief White House correspondent, grew frustrated with White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Thursday when she would not give a definitive statement that President Trump denounces white supremacists after he refused to do so in the presidential debate Tuesday. He later lost patience, saying: “Stop deflecting. Stop blaming the media,” Roberts declared. “I’m tired of it!” Really?
Let’s stipulate that Roberts is not akin to the “Fox & Friends” hosts or Fox’s evening lineup of Trump sycophants when it comes to distorting reality and cheerleading Trump. (Disclosure: I am an MSNBC contributor.) However, the White House has been deflecting like this for nearly four years. It has refused to answer all sorts of questions about Russian President Vladimir Putin, about Trump’s finances, about Trump’s embrace of racists and about any topic that would reveal Trump to be clueless or malicious. McEnany is just the most egregious practitioner of the non-response or the out-and-out falsehood. Roberts cannot possibly have just figured this out.
Roberts should look closer to home, if he’s “tired of it.” It is his network that allows Trump on air to spin bizarre conspiracy theories and blatant lies about his opponent. It is Fox News that has become a cesspool of anti-democratic (small “d”) and racist tropes. It is Fox News that tries to avoid — or to borrow a word, “deflects” — topics injurious to Trump, such as the New York Times bombshell about his taxes. It is his network that followed Trump’s anti-mask sneering. It is Fox News that has denigrated Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, and defended Trump’s covid-19 inanities — until he declares he was joking or being sarcastic. Even its “straight news” anchor Bret Baier went on air before the presidential debate to treat wild conspiracy theories about former vice president Joe Biden cheating at the debate as a serious story. It is Fox News that repeats Russian propaganda debunked by our intelligence community and the Senate Intelligence Committee concerning Ukraine.
It would be hard to find one entity on the planet more responsible than John Roberts’s employer for enabling Trump, keeping his base in line, misleading the public about Trump’s corruption, excusing his culpability and giving him a sense of invincibility. It is not the only one, but it certainly leads the pack of Pravda-like outlets whose job is to defend Trump by deceiving viewers and readers if need be.
And speaking of Fox News’s role in creating and sustaining the Trump phenomenon, what exactly does the network do if and when Trump loses and the story of Trump’s unfitness, incompetence and the rest comes tumbling out? I suppose it would decline to cover that as well.
But in the end (we are reaching the end, right?), Fox News aggravated Trump’s worst tendencies and put him in a feedback loop. He comfortably inhabited a parallel reality and therefore never learned to function in our reality. He could always count on Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson or “Fox & Friends” to reinforce his delusions. Fox News has encouraged him and its viewers to downplay the coronavirus, literally putting Americans’ lives at risk. Fox News might have sustained Trump for a few years, but it has left him entirely vulnerable to a real opponent with real facts. And if the goal was to bolster the views of its viewers, Fox News wound up deluding them as well.
Fox News did accomplish one thing: It made a ton of money. It might be money gained at the expense of our democracy and of thousands of American lives, but it did deliver for its stock owners. Think of it as the political equivalent of blood diamonds. I do wonder in the quiet moments whether Fox News’s board of directors, senior management and stockholders think it was worth it. Are they proud of their handiwork?
As for Roberts, if he really is tired, he might consider leaving his present position. No one would blame him for deciding not to work for a propaganda machine thinly disguised as a news network.
HydroKid239
Well-Known Member
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/trump-coronavirus-media-lies/2020/10/02/9b0127d6-04ba-11eb-897d-3a6201d6643f_story.html
With President Trump apparently struck by covid-19 a month before a critical election and after 200,000 American deaths from the disease, what we really need right now is an entirely credible, fact-based voice from the White House.
Good luck with that.
The Greek philosopher Diogenes was said to have wandered the streets of Athens with a lantern searching in vain for someone to speak the truth. I don’t think he’d have any better luck at the top level of the executive branch right now, despite our extraordinary need for trustworthy communication.
With the exception of Anthony S. Fauci, and maybe a few other top medical experts, there isn’t a trusted truth-teller in sight.
“Donald Trump’s way of dealing with negative news is consistent: Hide it, spin it, and always lie about it,” said Tim O’Brien, a Trump biographer and now a Bloomberg Opinion columnist who was once sued, unsuccessfully, by the then-developer.
This moment, O’Brien told me, doesn’t promise to be any different despite the incredibly high stakes for national security as our allies and adversaries assess what’s happening and act accordingly, as markets react, and as more lives are threatened by exposure to the disease.
Biden tests negative for coronavirus; Trump experiencing ‘mild symptoms’ after positive test
It’s no secret that a culture of lies permeates the White House. There has been a parade of press secretaries with a remarkably consistent record of failing to tell the truth to reporters and the general public. It started on the very first day of the Trump administration, when Sean Spicer lied by insisting falsely, at the president’s behest, that his inaugural crowd was the largest of all time.
That kind of dissembling is still happening on press secretary Kayleigh McEnany’s watch. At a briefing Thursday, Fox News Radio White House correspondent Jon Decker pressed her to provide details about Trump’s public claim that voters’ mail-in ballots had been “dumped in rivers.”
Where’s the river, Decker wanted to know and who is the “they” who found them there?
McEnany responded in her usual cocksure manner: “Local authorities. It was a ditch in Wisconsin.” She provided no other specifics, and let’s be clear: This is a hyperbolic tale meant to further voter mistrust in the integrity of the election.
This is the same press secretary who promised at the start of her tenure last spring that she would never lie to the press — and then immediately began to spread untruths.
The problem, to put it mildly, is widespread among administration officials. But it starts at the top with Trump himself who lies so relentlessly. As The Post’s Glenn Kessler put it in his introduction to the book “Donald Trump and the His Assault on Truth”: “The pace and frequency of Trump’s falsehoods can feel mind-numbing — and many Americans appear to have tuned out.”
In this latest crisis, the predictable cycle of dangerous obfuscation has already begun. It was only after Bloomberg News reported that Trump aide Hope Hicks had tested positive for coronavirus that the White House acknowledged it.
Years of the White House obscuring health information add instability at a tricky moment
Would we even know about Trump’s diagnosis if it weren’t for that? Maybe not. What about those he has come in contact with in recent days?
Would they know they were endangered? The indications aren’t good. Yamiche Alcindor, the PBS White House correspondent, reported Friday that there was “no contact from the Trump campaign or the White House to alert the Biden campaign of possible exposure.” The campaign learned of the situation from news reports.
And when it comes to Trump’s health, he and his minions have a history of dubious statements. His former personal physician, Harold Bornstein, confessed that Trump dictated the doctor’s glowing 2015 letter that “his physical strength and stamina are extraordinary,” and that, if elected, Trump would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” More recently, his trip to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last November remains all too mysterious; reasonable questions were never satisfactorily answered.
What is the press to do?
Obviously, keep up with the kind of aggressive reporting that has revealed what’s happening. But be wary — even more wary than before — of taking any Trump or White House statements at face value and transmitting them to the public.
Reporters should be pressing for documentation, specific timelines, and statements from credible medical experts. If White House officials want to be believed about the president’s “minor symptoms,” for example, they need to “overload the system with truth,” former Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart told me.
Be completely transparent and willing to document it. To use the ballots-in-river case as an example: Name the local authority in Wisconsin who found the thrown-out ballots in a river (or a creek, or a ditch, as their evolving claim suggested at various points); and tell us exactly where that took place. Give us a map.
Once upon a time, when a president or his press secretary made a statement on an crucially important matter, it was simply considered news. And reported as such.
The time for that is long past. The stakes are higher than ever, and the demand for proof should be, too.
Otherwise, Americans will reasonably come to an unavoidable conclusion: If the statement is from the president’s tweet, or from the press secretary’s mouth, there’s no reason to think it’s true.
With President Trump apparently struck by covid-19 a month before a critical election and after 200,000 American deaths from the disease, what we really need right now is an entirely credible, fact-based voice from the White House.
Good luck with that.
The Greek philosopher Diogenes was said to have wandered the streets of Athens with a lantern searching in vain for someone to speak the truth. I don’t think he’d have any better luck at the top level of the executive branch right now, despite our extraordinary need for trustworthy communication.
With the exception of Anthony S. Fauci, and maybe a few other top medical experts, there isn’t a trusted truth-teller in sight.
“Donald Trump’s way of dealing with negative news is consistent: Hide it, spin it, and always lie about it,” said Tim O’Brien, a Trump biographer and now a Bloomberg Opinion columnist who was once sued, unsuccessfully, by the then-developer.
This moment, O’Brien told me, doesn’t promise to be any different despite the incredibly high stakes for national security as our allies and adversaries assess what’s happening and act accordingly, as markets react, and as more lives are threatened by exposure to the disease.
Biden tests negative for coronavirus; Trump experiencing ‘mild symptoms’ after positive test
It’s no secret that a culture of lies permeates the White House. There has been a parade of press secretaries with a remarkably consistent record of failing to tell the truth to reporters and the general public. It started on the very first day of the Trump administration, when Sean Spicer lied by insisting falsely, at the president’s behest, that his inaugural crowd was the largest of all time.
That kind of dissembling is still happening on press secretary Kayleigh McEnany’s watch. At a briefing Thursday, Fox News Radio White House correspondent Jon Decker pressed her to provide details about Trump’s public claim that voters’ mail-in ballots had been “dumped in rivers.”
Where’s the river, Decker wanted to know and who is the “they” who found them there?
McEnany responded in her usual cocksure manner: “Local authorities. It was a ditch in Wisconsin.” She provided no other specifics, and let’s be clear: This is a hyperbolic tale meant to further voter mistrust in the integrity of the election.
This is the same press secretary who promised at the start of her tenure last spring that she would never lie to the press — and then immediately began to spread untruths.
The problem, to put it mildly, is widespread among administration officials. But it starts at the top with Trump himself who lies so relentlessly. As The Post’s Glenn Kessler put it in his introduction to the book “Donald Trump and the His Assault on Truth”: “The pace and frequency of Trump’s falsehoods can feel mind-numbing — and many Americans appear to have tuned out.”
In this latest crisis, the predictable cycle of dangerous obfuscation has already begun. It was only after Bloomberg News reported that Trump aide Hope Hicks had tested positive for coronavirus that the White House acknowledged it.
Years of the White House obscuring health information add instability at a tricky moment
Would we even know about Trump’s diagnosis if it weren’t for that? Maybe not. What about those he has come in contact with in recent days?
Would they know they were endangered? The indications aren’t good. Yamiche Alcindor, the PBS White House correspondent, reported Friday that there was “no contact from the Trump campaign or the White House to alert the Biden campaign of possible exposure.” The campaign learned of the situation from news reports.
And when it comes to Trump’s health, he and his minions have a history of dubious statements. His former personal physician, Harold Bornstein, confessed that Trump dictated the doctor’s glowing 2015 letter that “his physical strength and stamina are extraordinary,” and that, if elected, Trump would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” More recently, his trip to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last November remains all too mysterious; reasonable questions were never satisfactorily answered.
What is the press to do?
Obviously, keep up with the kind of aggressive reporting that has revealed what’s happening. But be wary — even more wary than before — of taking any Trump or White House statements at face value and transmitting them to the public.
Reporters should be pressing for documentation, specific timelines, and statements from credible medical experts. If White House officials want to be believed about the president’s “minor symptoms,” for example, they need to “overload the system with truth,” former Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart told me.
Be completely transparent and willing to document it. To use the ballots-in-river case as an example: Name the local authority in Wisconsin who found the thrown-out ballots in a river (or a creek, or a ditch, as their evolving claim suggested at various points); and tell us exactly where that took place. Give us a map.
Once upon a time, when a president or his press secretary made a statement on an crucially important matter, it was simply considered news. And reported as such.
The time for that is long past. The stakes are higher than ever, and the demand for proof should be, too.
Otherwise, Americans will reasonably come to an unavoidable conclusion: If the statement is from the president’s tweet, or from the press secretary’s mouth, there’s no reason to think it’s true.
HydroKid239
Well-Known Member
I hate that cunt
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
It is tough not to, just don't let him radicalize you to being against him so much when they slip in a good thing for Trump's cult to throw in our face about him as a fact of Dear Leader doing something ok (like bi-partisan prison reform bill) it triggers us into being defensive.
waterproof808
Well-Known Member
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
It isn't on the AP yet. So I am not going to jump the gun on believing it (is on others like newsweek), but if that does end up being real, that is what Trump gets by not being able to keep people who are exceptionally good at their jobs, they do stupid shit like that and ends up blowing Trump's obvious trolls, because they are idiots.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/frenzied-speculation-over-trumps-health-only-feeds-the-misinformation-mess-he-created/2020/10/04/2bff3688-04de-11eb-897d-3a6201d6643f_story.html
PRESIDENT TRUMP informed the country over Twitter of his positive coronavirus diagnosis at 12:54 a.m. on Friday. By morning, the Internet was already rife with conspiracy theories and other misinformation. The frenzied speculation must stop: It feeds into the insidious “infodemic” environment that the president himself helped to create.
Experts warn that last week’s revelation is fertile soil for all sorts of opportunists to plant lies, especially ahead of an election.
Adversaries abroad could attempt to destabilize democracy by suggesting, for example, an elite plot to replace the president on the ballot; domestic actors might cook up tales to serve their own partisan ends. Already, wild whispers have emerged from both sides of the political spectrum: that the White House is faking Mr. Trump’s illness to distract from other scandals, such as the release of the president’s troubling tax returns; or to avoid more damaging debates; or to “prove” after a speedy recovery that covid-19 isn’t so bad after all. Now talk has turned to the severity of his case and the timeline surrounding its disclosure.
Rumormongering is equally irresponsible no matter its source, but it is especially disheartening to see such behavior from those who have spent the past months rightly bemoaning the stream of falsehoods about covid-19 coming from the Oval Office. A recent report from Cornell University found that Mr. Trump has been “likely the largest driver of the COVID-19 misinformation ‘infodemic’ ” in traditional and online media: Almost 38 percent of articles including debunkable claims, including that hydroxychloroquine could be a miracle cure for the disease, mention the president in the context of the inaccuracies. The researchers note how damaging this misinformation can prove, whether it prompts people to attempt to treat themselves with harmful substances or reduces trust in health authorities trying to promote responsible behavior.
Of course, the president’s behavior has also had the effect of reducing trust in him. Those who today do not believe a word coming from the White House about Mr. Trump’s illness are responding to the reality that the words coming from the White House throughout this crisis have frequently been unbelievable. The problem was compounded Saturday when the president’s doctor and chief of staff offered accounts of his condition that were contradictory and incomplete. Transparency from reputable sources will prove crucial in the days to come. Yet guessing about Mr. Trump, or others infected in the administration, without any grounding in verified fact only contributes to the chaos.
Today, health misinformation and political misinformation are melding together to the detriment of our health and our politics alike.
Mr. Trump may have created this mess. But those who deplore his handiwork should take care not to make our national conversation more of a shambles.
PRESIDENT TRUMP informed the country over Twitter of his positive coronavirus diagnosis at 12:54 a.m. on Friday. By morning, the Internet was already rife with conspiracy theories and other misinformation. The frenzied speculation must stop: It feeds into the insidious “infodemic” environment that the president himself helped to create.
Experts warn that last week’s revelation is fertile soil for all sorts of opportunists to plant lies, especially ahead of an election.
Adversaries abroad could attempt to destabilize democracy by suggesting, for example, an elite plot to replace the president on the ballot; domestic actors might cook up tales to serve their own partisan ends. Already, wild whispers have emerged from both sides of the political spectrum: that the White House is faking Mr. Trump’s illness to distract from other scandals, such as the release of the president’s troubling tax returns; or to avoid more damaging debates; or to “prove” after a speedy recovery that covid-19 isn’t so bad after all. Now talk has turned to the severity of his case and the timeline surrounding its disclosure.
Rumormongering is equally irresponsible no matter its source, but it is especially disheartening to see such behavior from those who have spent the past months rightly bemoaning the stream of falsehoods about covid-19 coming from the Oval Office. A recent report from Cornell University found that Mr. Trump has been “likely the largest driver of the COVID-19 misinformation ‘infodemic’ ” in traditional and online media: Almost 38 percent of articles including debunkable claims, including that hydroxychloroquine could be a miracle cure for the disease, mention the president in the context of the inaccuracies. The researchers note how damaging this misinformation can prove, whether it prompts people to attempt to treat themselves with harmful substances or reduces trust in health authorities trying to promote responsible behavior.
Of course, the president’s behavior has also had the effect of reducing trust in him. Those who today do not believe a word coming from the White House about Mr. Trump’s illness are responding to the reality that the words coming from the White House throughout this crisis have frequently been unbelievable. The problem was compounded Saturday when the president’s doctor and chief of staff offered accounts of his condition that were contradictory and incomplete. Transparency from reputable sources will prove crucial in the days to come. Yet guessing about Mr. Trump, or others infected in the administration, without any grounding in verified fact only contributes to the chaos.
Today, health misinformation and political misinformation are melding together to the detriment of our health and our politics alike.
Mr. Trump may have created this mess. But those who deplore his handiwork should take care not to make our national conversation more of a shambles.
Bublonichronic
Well-Known Member
RIU blocked me off other thread...the bill makes it so if the offender is less than 10yrs older then a person 14yrs old they do not have to register as a sex offender and will not get a felony...to me it seems it is a slippery slope and aims to normalize pedophilia...and eventually will decriminalize it all together, I don’t know if people have noticed but that’s how the government does shit, they slowly criminalize or decriminalize something so a law that would have seemed crazy 10/20 years ago looks like less of a jump
Fogdog
Well-Known Member
Citation required.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
But the problem is you didn't provide any link to the information in that other thread. How would you expect me to try to find something like that is true or not?
I am not questioning that you might have heard it, but where? Are you sure that you did not just fall for propaganda? And just because you can get a result on google, doesn't mean that it is a for real thing in the real world. If you have a credible source for that information I would be happy to read it.
But until then it is just you saying something all edgy to get it out in the world making it that much more real to the people who may happen to read what you wrote.
