Tag: The MSM

Just in Case You’re Not Sure Who the Media Are

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Just to make sure we know exactly who they are, TMZ exposes just how much they hate normal people.  During the live streamed report of Charlie Kirk’s shooting a cheer and clapping breaks out off camera from TMZ’s staff just as President Trump announced his death.

Then the on-camera host and his stooge give an apology and excuse that these cheering ghouls were watching a car chase on some other feed.  These people hate us viscerally.  They would dance on our graves without a single misgiving.  Remember that.

I hope they go out of business even faster than they already were.

The Jig is Up

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I read today that Rachel Maddow is taking a pay cut over at MSNBC.  She will go from making $30 million to $25 million a year.  Well, I guess she’ll still be able to afford all the lesbian leisure wear and sensible shoes her heart desires.  But it must be devastating knowing she’s already peaked and from now on she’ll have to start clipping out coupons to take that trip to Davos.

I guess the changing world isn’t just impacting the deplorables.  The Masters of the Universe haven’t just disrupted the lives of the factory workers whose factories were shipped off to China but they replaced cable television with on-line video games, TikTok and YouTube.  The market for Maddow, Anderson Cooper and the rest of the cable news “stars” at CNN, MSNBC and even Fox News is rapidly shrinking.  The era of thirty or even twenty-million-dollar cable news contracts is over.  That kind of money is reserved for people who can draw enormous audiences.  Joe Rogan is an example and so are the ”influencers” who have YouTube channels that draw tens of millions of viewers.  Meanwhile CNN and MSNBC can’t even break the hundred thousand viewer mark lately for their crummy shows.  And yet all these shows pay their talent millions of dollars.

That math doesn’t work.  As previously discussed, these cable channels will be spun off from their parent companies and forced to sink or swim.  And the only way they can swim is to either:

  • Reduce their costs down to almost nothing, or
  • Provide value that will attract more customers

But how can people like Joy Reid or Joe Scarborough attract an audience?  They’re talentless hacks.  All they can do is keep reducing their price to match their employer’s death spiral.

But eventually an equilibrium will be reached and a new model will take hold for providing news and opinion to the digital masses.  I’ll be honest I’m not sure exactly what will emerge.  What makes sense is a bunch of subscriptions that run the gamut from hard news outlets that possess reporters in the field, to opinion writers, to entertainers.

Something like that makes sense to me.  After all there was nothing permanent about the cable networks or even the “big three” news teams of the broadcast networks.  All of them were artifacts of the changing landscape created by the waves of innovation in journalism caused by the introduction of first radio, then tv, then cable tv and finally the internet.  All of these were commercial endeavors and each eventually changed shape to accommodate the market forces that developed.

The dominance of leftists in the current media landscape seems to guarantee that the majority of those about to be unemployed will be people I despise.  I can’t pretend that won’t provide me with great satisfaction in the weeks and months ahead.  So many of these people are smug, entitled losers who lack the self-awareness to anticipate what they are heading for.

Well, enough lefty bashing.  Time will tell if what replaces the current system will be an improvement over the MSM.  All I know for sure is that it won’t include Joy Reid and Joe Scarborough pulling down multi-million-dollar salaries.

New Media Buries the MSM

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I think this may be the most interesting analysis of the media battle for the 2024 election,  He says the MSM was the voice of the Deep State and this time America stopped listening to them.  Trump is a fascist.  Trump is literally Hitler.  Trump will personally rape all of America’s cat ladies.  It didn’t work.

And even as I get out of the business of being a voice of the great right-wing conspiracy I’ll take my tiny bit of credit for making the MSM a spent force.

Three cheers for us.

Republican Convention Fun

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One of the interesting observations that has been mentioned by people both on the Left and Right is that the mood at the Republican Convention is not the usual atmosphere of nervous tension and fear.  It has been replaced by one that has been described variously as excitement, confidence and almost giddy jubilation.  For once Republicans haven’t been gaslighted into despair by the national media.

And that’s great.  Even if eventually the Democrats manage to steal the election, at least for the time being, Republicans are openly talking about their agenda and why it will be a boon for the American people.  And why is all this happening?  I’d say it’s no coincidence that George and Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, Mike Pence, Liz Cheney and all the rest of the establishment Republicans have stayed away.  I’m guessing they weren’t disinvited.  They just knew that this wasn’t their party anymore.  And I guess it would be degrading for them to be ignored and disparaged by the new owners of the GOP; Donald Trump and his rowdy friends.

I’ll confess that I’m pretty excited about this snub.  I am a very vindictive guy and knowing that Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney are getting the cold shoulder is a rare pleasure.  Schadenfreude is a guilty pleasure for most but I revel in it.  These are people who despise the great unwashed.  The fact that they look down on normal people is why I hate these elitist swine.  Ordinary people run the gamut from devils to saints.  And they deserve to be considered on an individual basis just as the rich should be.

And this is the lesson of Trump.  He is this fabulously wealthy, crazy man who rubs elbows with the captains and the kings of industry and society.  He could be one with the rest of the aristocrats.  But he still feels a connection to hoi polloi; the many.  Maybe it’s because he was born and raised in New York City back when it was still a place where rich and poor had some things in common.  We still celebrated the same holidays and watched the same ball clubs and movies and maybe still felt a feeling of community when the Twin Towers were destroyed in 2001.

For whatever reason he’s decided to be our champion.  He’s even faced a bullet now.  For better or worse, he’s our guy.  And most of the Republican Party has finally reconciled to that reality.  And whether we see him triumph in November and take his second shot at fixing this terribly broken country or see him go down in flames and report to prison to serve out the rest of his life behind bars, we’re going to follow this parade either up to the shining city on the hill or off the cliff.

And since the die is cast, we might as well enjoy it a little.  Joe and Mika and Crazy Joy Reid have been almost apoplectic since the hilarious Trump-Biden debate where Dementia Joe revealed to the world that he’s down to just a handful of brain cells and can no longer pretend to be sentient.  Watching the various components of the “independent” press beclown themselves trying to reconcile the claim that Joe Biden is both a president of enormous accomplishments and a human turnip is endlessly entertaining.  After the assassination attempt MSNBC pulled Morning Joe off the air for a day to avoid one of the psychotic denizens of that show saying something so disgusting that the last three people in their audience finally give up.  Watching Joe, the next day complaining bitterly about this “betrayal” was very amusing.

 

I’m guessing the next act will involve all the people who begged Joe Biden to drop out of the race because he’s a jabbering moron switching gears and swearing on a stack of bibles that he’s actually a super genius of Wiley Coyote caliber.  That should be rich.  Well, I’m thankful that my enemies are in disarray and acting crazier than usual.

Now, on with the show.

When the Mainstream Media Descends into Self-Parody

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I just skimmed through a magazine article called (so help me this is true):

“How Joe Biden Is Positioning Himself as a Modern FDR”

It was published in what is left on-line of Time magazine and written by Charlotte Alter who apparently has either learned at the foot of her father Jonathan Alter  how to lie outrageously or is a congenital idiot.

Reading what Alter says about the similarities between Roosevelt and Creepy Uncle Joe is like some kind of fun house mirror that could turn a flawed but patriotic persona like FDR into the semblance of a congenital liar and moral leper like the grifting, influence peddling, hair-sniffing, shoulder-fondling, gollum-like sex predator that fathered something as degraded as Hunter Biden.

Now I know that the mainstream media is shameless and will say anything to aid the Democrats but what kind of morons do they think the American people are?  FDR was a master communicator that was elected four times to the presidency during the Great Depression and World War II.  Joe Biden can barely string a noun and verb together in a sentence and when he manages to do that the noun is invariably a mistake for some other subject.  Is he running against George Bush or Donald Trump?  Is he running for the Senate or the presidency?  Is it 1988 or 2020?

FDR was a power politician who was known to manipulate those around him to achieve his goals.  But Joe Biden is a just an out and out crook who has sold the influence that his offices as Senator and Vice President have allowed him.  And the culmination of that career of betraying his public office is on display on the hard drive of Hunter Biden’s laptop.  Hunter was Joe’s self-identified bagman for thirty years.  He collected the bribes and laundered them through ridiculously overpaid, no-show jobs for which he was absurdly unqualified.  He was paid $80,000 a month by Burisma, a Ukrainian oil company, when he had no knowledge about the petroleum industry and no knowledge about the Ukraine.  And just to make sure no one mistook him for an actual employee he never showed up in the Ukraine.

Just to be clear, I am not a big fan of FDR.  His handling of the Great Depression was disastrous.  His socialist policies in the long run have not been helpful to the financial health of the United States.  And his character was quite flawed.  But to compare FDR to Joe Biden is like comparing Augustus Caesar to Caligula.  We can agree that both men were Romans and there the comparison ends.  We can agree that FDR and Joe Biden were both born in the United States and that’s about it.

Instead of advocating to have Biden elevated to the White House we should be endeavoring to have him locked up in a prison or at best consigned to a mental institution where he can’t harm himself or anyone else.

I didn’t include a hyperlink to the article because I didn’t want to provide them with any clicks for this crap.  If you really have a strong stomach or enjoy absurdist humor just do an internet search with the title.  But you’d be more amused by stopping by the Babylon Bee.  It truly is amazing what the human mind can make up if rent money is provided as an incentive.  At least if you happen to be a shameless progressive.

Media Uses Deceptive Headlines to Get Clicks

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If you see a headline like “Why the Trump Campaign Has Biden On the Ropes,” on a news aggregation site best to check who wrote it.  If it’s a lefty outlet like Newsweek you might find that the real title is, “The Trump Campaign Believes It Has Biden On the Ropes. Here’s Why.”  And if you bother to read it, you’ll find that the real thesis is the opposite of the original headline that caught your eye.

So, either the aggregator or the publisher is trying to trick you into clicking on their black pill article.  I like to look over Real Clear Politics every day to see what’s out there.  They’re a news aggregator that is useful because they make a point of balancing articles about 50/50 between left wing and right-wing sources.  But I suspect that their readership is more heavily right leaning, probably 70/30.  So, in order to increase clicks they seem to hide the lefty content as well as they can.

But I’m a wily consumer of the news.  If they leave the name of the publisher off the article, I hover my mouse over the link and eventually it reveals the web address and I can tell who wrote it.  Since there is so much political content during an election my rule of thumb for finding meaningful content is to look for left leaning writers who have good news for me and right leaning writers who have bad news for me.  That eliminates the stuff that is just partisan flag waving on both sides.  But apparently Real Clear Politics is trying to game things by altering titles.  So now, even if I think I’ve found something interesting I have to check the whole IP address to see who it came from and what the actual title is before I click.

I guess I could just read any stuff that sounds interesting but I like to limit any support for places like the NY Times or the Washington Post to a bare minimum just on the principle that not feeding trolls is a good strategy.  But even more importantly time is a precious commodity and wasting it reading nonsense is an offense against your own life.  Especially since some of these guys at places like the Atlantic will rattle off a 5,000-word screed.  That’s 15 – 30 minutes of your life you could have used to do any number of useful and enjoyable tasks.  Hell, throwing out the garbage would still be a more constructive and satisfying employment than reading some woke hipster’s take on why Joe Biden should get your vote.

So, if you have run into this problem the appropriate strategy is look at the web address of the link and you can typically tell the publisher and the actual title of the article.  But of course, a much better strategy is to go first to Orion’s Cold Fire.  The perceptive readers who come here know that we would never try to lure you in with deceptive titles.  And the writing and analysis is always top notch.

Yielding the High Ground is for Losers

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In war attacking an enemy who is occupying the high ground is a daunting exercise.  Because all other things being equal, attacking the enemy is literally an uphill battle.  Gravity is your opponent’s friend and your foe.  Line of sight works for him and against you.  Almost every possible advantage is given to the force occupying the higher ground.

Now, the only thing worse than starting out at the bottom of the hill is starting out on the higher ground and then giving it up to the enemy for no reason.  That is the sign of a blithering idiot.  Case in point is the Battle of Gettysburg.  The Confederate forces routed the Union on the first day of battle but through the incompetence of one of the generals did not then occupy the high points and deny the Union the strategic advantage that eventually won them the battle, and consequently thereafter, the war.

One of the hallmarks of both Bush presidencies was the way these men allowed the press to pummel them at every turn.  And among the most memorable occasions for this mayhem were the Presidential Debates.  On these occasions, especially for Dubyah, a unanimous chorus of Leftist Journalists would lopsidedly pound the snot out of the poor old doofus at every turn, while his Democrat opponents would be treated to love taps when their turn came to answer questions.  In fact, most of the time, the questions given to Gore or Kerry consisted of Democrat talking points to use as segues into a new attack on poor old George.  And of course the Bushes were just the worst case of this syndrome.  McCain and Romney were both treated to a similar roasting when their turns came up for the debate demolition derby.

Knowing that the press is almost 100% leftist it is no surprise that the Commission on Presidential Debates is irremediably hostile to Republican candidates and if a Republican is running for a first term, unless he is in a very strong position vis-a-vis the Democrat incumbent, he probably has no choice but to submit himself to the uphill battle that the debate commission will engineer.  But if you are an incumbent President with a good record or even a fair record why would you give up the high ground and allow your enemies to sit back in comfort and pour artillery fire down on you while you have to slog up the hill through it?

That is why it’s especially satisfying to read that President Trump is not satisfied with walking into the typical ambush.  Several times now he has stated that if the panel and the rules don’t seem unbiased he’ll forego the whole thing.  And he can do it.  After all that is the advantage of the incumbency, your opponent needs to show that he is better than you.  If the incumbent has a good track record then it’s an uphill battle for him to attack you.  He wants the debate to provide the chance for a lucky knockout punch.  To extend the boxing metaphor, if you are going to fight him at least do it in your ring and with at least a neutral referee, not one of his henchmen who’ll allow your opponent to put some lead in his glove.

When considering who I would want as a debate moderator the first name that came to mind was Tucker Carlson.  Carlson would inject a right-wing perspective to a presidential debate that as far as I can remember has never been tried before.  Watching Bernie or Crazy Uncle Joe trying to answer any really hard questions about their nonsensical positions or actions would be a true revelation for the American voting audience.  Watching them try to answer honestly how the Green New Deal would impact the cost of heating a home and owning an automobile would be hilarious.  And can you imagine Joe Biden explaining how his half-wit son made millions of dollars as an energy company director when he can barely keep himself out of a crack cocaine halfway house from month to month.  That would be amazing to watch.

But we don’t have to restrict the idea to just Tucker.  Brit Hume, Sharyl Attkisson, Mark Levin or Rush Limbaugh would all bring various skills and viewpoints that would balance out the typical leftist positions represented by someone like Lester Holt, Martha Raddatz, Anderson Cooper or Chris Wallace.

So, here’s hoping that President Trump cuts a really good deal and holds the high ground or just foregoes the whole biased process and let’s the American people judge him and his opponent on the merits of what each has accomplished.  That would be another way to make his opponent fight an uphill battle.

22NOV2018 – War Pig’s Posts – The Deterioration of the US Media

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The only places you will find this on the Internet are a couple of Cold War casualty websites. The news is remarkably blank on the subject as they were caught doing bad reporting (no reporting at all, really). The news media at the time basically ran a story based on what they heard, not an investigation of the facts (sound familiar?).

 

I was stationed in (then) West Germany when this happened. There was some difference of opinion whether or not it was over a card game or a love triangle, but the rest of the facts were clear. A GI put a sabot round into his M60 tank’s gun and fired it into another M60 directly behind him at the rail head.

 

By the time the story got back to the USA and the American media coverage was repeated on Armed Forces Radio and Television, this story would not have been recognized by its own mother. It was variously portrayed as a terror attack, as communist infiltration within our ranks, in fact, almost everything but what it was.

 

I admit I trusted the US media when I was young. Walter Cronkite and the rest. That trust was shaken during Vietnam and finally destroyed in West Germany. The reporting in Vietnam was slanted, we all realized that, but the reporting from West Germany on this incident was so far off the mark I realized they were just making it up. And it as all of them back then. All three networks. I’ve never trusted the Fourth Estate since. I always insist on backup, then backup for the backup. Having the mainstream media decide what you should hear and how it should be spun is a bad idea. That’s why I like the Internet. It can, and has, held the media’s feet to the fire and caught them being wrong, lazy, and out & out lying and/or making stuff up. That is also why I am worried about the big Internet companies censoring people for political views which hold the liberal media up to scrutiny. We need freedom to challenge opinion, even (or especially) the media’s. I find it strange that the big Internet companies allow flat-earthers and anti-vaxxers free forums, yet censor conservative political views.

 

Here’s the real scoop from the Association of the 3rd Armored Division. I looked all morning for news reports on this but there are none I can find. Only other Cold War casualty websites:

 

 

1980

 

SP4 Gregory “Frank” Montoya & SP4 Patrick Romero, A Company 3rd Battalion 32 Armor. were killed on 4 November 1980 at the Hohenfels rail head when (name deleted) climbed into a tank during rail loading, loaded the M60A3 main gun with an armor piercing round (Sabot) & fired the main gun into the tank behind his. All tanks are rail loaded with the main gun in a travel lock position over the back deck. There was apparently a lot of confusion about the whole incident with reports of a lighting strike causing rounds to explode. The incident was finally solved when the tank main gun rounds were counted & inventoried. SGT Jeffrey Young & PVT David Park were also badly burned during this incident. *****The SOB convicted of this murder was sentenced to 20 yrs in Leavenworth but only served 8 years!!

Additional information provided by CPT Mark S. Atwood: The 1980 incident in 3/32, when the sabot round was fired into the turret of another tank during movement by rail, it is my understanding there was bad blood between the shooter and some/all members of the other crew over a card game. During rail movements the troops played cards, D and D, etc to pass the time. The shooter had been the big loser and I believe, thought he had been cheated. Here is additional information on this incident from Ken Armstrong: I served with 3/32 in 1979-1981 and was stationed in Freidburg at Ray Barracks. I also served with Greg Montoya and Pat Romero and was present when they were killed in November of 1980. Pat was a good friend and we drank many a beer together. Additional information on this event from Richard Zipse: I didn’t know Pat Romero but Frank was not only a great guy but getting very short. It was sad indeed that the filthy **** that killed him got out of Germany, much less Leavenworth, alive. As I remember it, he had been chasing a section 8 for months. I’m pretty sure Sgt. Young and I were on 14 together for a bit before he made rank and moved over to the third platoon; and, also that Park was very new to the unit and had just arrived as they needed crewmen. I’m thinking SSGT Able got him out of the smoked vehicle but not certain…also I’m thinking he was flown to Walter Reed Hospital due to the extent of his burns and later passed on….though this obviously may be incorrect.

 

Trump vs the Acostafication of Press Corps Nation

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Dramatis Personae: President Trump – (PT);  Jim Acosta, CNN – (JA);   Major Garrett, CBS News – (MG);  Hallie Jackson, NBC News – (HJ);  Cecilia Vega, ABC News – (CV);  Al Drago, New York Times – (AD)

 

White House Press Corps Briefing Room; Wednesday 3pm

(President Trump is at the podium and is flanked by Secret Service Agents holding cardboard boxes.)

 

PT – Good afternoon Fake News Corps and welcome to the first White House news briefing since I’ve instituted the new rules.  I will now walk you through them.

First, each of you will be issued your own personalized microphone.  This microphone is only active when you hold it and the President or the Press Secretary has authorized your turn to question.  Your biometric information has been programmed into the unit.  It will only act as a microphone if you yourself are holding it.  Utilizing sound isolation software it will only broadcast your voice.  Also, if anyone else attempts to use your microphone within this room or if you attempt to use it out of turn, it will administer a significant electric shock to the holder.  Each subsequent attempt at unauthorized use will increase the voltage significantly until it reaches the legal limit.  After that point you probably will drop into a fetal position and call for your mommy.

Bob and Mitch will hand out the microphones and we’ll get started.

(Secret Service hands out the microphones and return to the dais)

PT – Okay let’s see who’s first.  How about you Major?

MG – Sir, Major Garrett, CBS News.

PT – Yeah, I know Major, I said your name.  What’s your question?

MG – Mr. President, don’t you think this demeans the dignity of the White House Press Corps?

PT – You can’t demean that which does not exist.  You next Hallie.

MG – As a foll… (suddenly screeching and swearing) YEEEAAAHHHH, son of a bitch!

PT – Major you weren’t next.  Bet that stings though.  Hallie, you’re next.

HJ – Uhhh, no questions at this time Mr. President.

PT – Oh, okay, how about you Cecilia?

CV – Mr. President, aren’t you afraid that this will send the wrong message to the American people?

PT – No Cecilia, I’m generally not afraid.  Al Drago, any question?

AD – Mr. President, why are you resorting to these draconian measures?  Don’t you trust the fourth estate to maintain decorum?

PT – Those are two questions but just this once I will answer them both but in reverse order.  First, hah!  Second, I have resorted to the use of dog training equipment because Jim Acosta has shown that he has the manners and the intellect of a fairly dull-witted chihuahua.  You have a question Jim?

JA – I protest such a vile characterization of myself.

PT – That’s not a question.  Major you’re next.

JA – How dare youuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!

PT – That was a question Jim, but it wasn’t your turn.

MG – Can I give my question to Jim.

PT – No, but that was a question so Hallie we’re back to you.

HJ – Still no question sir.

PT – Cecilia?

CV – Uhhh, how are you enjoying the fall?

PT – Excellent, I’ve taken a couple of strokes off my golf game.  And that brings us back to you Jim.  Care to take another crack at it?  But please try to follow the protocol, we just got the rug steam cleaned.

(Acosta looking nervously around and holding the microphone in his left hand)

JA – Which reporter do you consider the enemy of the American people?

PT – Certainly not you anymore Jim.  You’re such a good boy!  Catch the treat!

Jim Acosta – Symptom of the Times

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Watching Jim Acosta at a White House Press Briefing is akin to watching a determined three-year-old asking his mother why.  Initially it’s amusing but eventually it’s unbearable.  The mindlessness of it renders it a form of exquisite torture.  In the three-year-old it’s tolerated because you know it’s a stage in the development of language and social skills.  In an allegedly mature man with a White House Press Pass it’s a symptom of the terminal illness that has infected the American body politic, bloodless civil war.  Acosta is a proxy for the desire of millions of progressives to harass the President of the United States for winning the 2016 presidential election.  He gets to mouth ridiculous complaints about the supposedly unfair statements President Trump makes about the press.  And in his yammering repetition of what he thinks are damning indictments of the current administration we hear an echo of the half-witted chants of Antifa, BLM, Occupy Wall Street and every other neo-marxist street circus going all the way back to the drug addled imbecilic protesters of the 1960s.  Hey hey, ho ho, blah blah blah has got to go.   Hey hey, ho ho, blah blah blah has got to go.  Hey hey, ho ho, blah blah blah has got to go.   Hey hey, ho ho, blah blah blah has got to go…………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

As ZMan is fond of saying “we live in unserious times.”  But in all actuality the stakes are very serious.  A federal judge (and one appointed by President Trump no less) has granted a temporary injunction pending a decision on whether Jim Acosta’s lunacy at White House press conferences is protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.  The duly elected leader of the most powerful state to ever exist is thwarted in his important work of transmitting the proceedings of his administration to the Press by a bleating half-wit with an expensive hair-cut and a power tie.  I’m starting to think that the real victory of the Trump presidency will be when he begins reining in the madness that the Left inflicts on us daily.

There is a school of thought that President Trump supports the daily barrage of leftist insanity as a way to garner sympathy from the American public, that the presence of Acosta actually stokes the anger that guarantees his constituency’s ardor in supporting his causes.  If that is true then I must be outside of his target audience.  I would pay a month’s gross salary to be rid of the likes of Jim Acosta from the daily news feed.  If he were permanently banned from the White House and had to merely comment from the sidelines, I would be supremely pleased.  It would be a solid win.  It wouldn’t change the world but it would be a sign that these lunatics sometimes have to retreat.  So, President Trump, hear my plea.  Don’t just let Jim Acosta win.  Push this all the way to the Supreme Court if need be and strike a blow for baseline sanity.  Prove that this is still in some small way the same place that engendered Washington and Jefferson or for pity’s sake at least Teddy Roosevelt.