More Linky Links

More stuff I foud interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Why Greatness is More Important than Fame.  

- Interesting question - Why is Fox News so desperate to silence Tucker Carlson?  Equally interesting quote, "Fox is now demanding Tucker Carlson be silent until after the 2024 election."

- Vice News, Buzzfeed, (and Niedamierer) - dead! They may as well be the equivalent to Webcrawler. (HT Execupundit)

- Speaking of interesting - Pfizer caught funneling $10 million to Anderson Cooper to promote mRNA jabs. Used to be if you were caught with a dead girl or live boy you'd be all done in public life. Now I fully expect CNN to shrug this off.

Buzzfeed

The quote to the left is from CS Lewis and I couldn't help but think it applied to BuzzFeed's discredited story that President Trump instructed his attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress on his behalf. The story was directly refuted by the Office of Robert Mueller.

I agree with this opinion that BuzzFeed's "overreach" (to be kind) forced Special Counsel Mueller's hand to say the Buzzfeed report wasn't true and in doing so probably foreshadows the Special Counsel not having anything of consequence against the President.

The name of the site is "BuzzFeed" so we really shouldn't be shocked that they peddle click-bait falsehoods. One gets the feeling that the name BuzzFeed was chosen only because "NewsChum" was already taken or didn't test as well with focus groups. All the same I'm ashamed of the fact that I've had a link to BuzzFeed on my blogroll.

Even though I haven't clicked that link in probably a year - I've removed it. I don't want to make myself into a devil by participating in these types of things. I want to do better.

And I'd appreciate it if the media did better too!

Trump and Fake News Part 1

In the spirit that your gut reaction is normally correct - here's what my gut reaction is telling me about this current maelstrom.

BuzzFeed "published" a series of allegations that are most likely false. I say most likely because I'm guessing there are a few innocuous true things scattered among the lies. The allegations are nothing new - they had been circulating among the Washington media for months but were never brought up because nothing could be verified. Let that sink in - for months professional journalists had the opportunity to verify the allegations but they could not. Why weren't they verified? The Occam's razor explanation would be BECAUSE THEY JUST AREN'T TRUE!

And now any "journalist" that joined in on the Twitter Golden Shower joke fest yesterday has called into question not just their own professionalism and bias but also the credibility of whatever news organization employs them. There will be ramifications.

At the very least say goodbye to the "Nerd Prom". The White House Correspondent's Dinner should have been ended years ago. Now it is absolutely done. And if the correspondents decide to go it alone without the President? They'll just look petty and cruel - which may be what they are at their core anyway.

At the worst - President Trump may turn the White House Briefing Room back into a swimming pool.  If Trump decided to end the daily press briefings and pool reporters traveling with him wherever he goes - who could really blame him? The White House could simply rely on press releases and maybe a weekly YouTube video from The Donald. If criticized President Trump could say that by doing just official press releases he is trying to eliminate the fake news and slander that is rampant in the Washington press. "Don't blame me" he'll  say, "blame the fabulists at BuzzFeed and The Rolling Stone, and all the others who can't be trusted to report the truth."

You know that the Golden Shower jokes will not go away. And Trump will now get to play the wounded husband and father. "My wife and children have to read these lies!" Middle America will not just feel his embarrassment but will also root for him to get even. When history asks how Trump's second term was made possible - Golden Showergate will be the starting point.