Is The U.S. News Media Fanning Hysteria About Racism?

Reuters

Aram Bakshian Jr., National Interest: The National Media Is Fanning Hysteria About Racism

After a white cop killed a black man, the mainstream media started doing what it does best: fanning the flames of hysteria.

Once upon a crime in America, in a state dominated by liberal politicians for most of the past seventy-five years, in a city in that state with a strong tradition of what these days is called “democratic socialism,” a man with a history of violent crime repeatedly tried to intimidate a shopkeeper into accepting a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill. The man was behaving erratically, the merchant felt uneasy, possibly threatened. Eventually, the police were called.

In the confrontation that followed, a member of the Minneapolis police force—a white cop with numerous complaints of misconduct on file—ended up killing the black man with a criminal history. In an odd twist, it has since been reported that these two less-than-model citizens already knew each other, having both worked as part-time bouncers in a local nightspot. We may never know what, if any, ghastly personal dynamic was at work here. But we do know that Eric Chauvin, the white cop, ended up with George Floyd, the black man, pinned to the ground; Chauvin’s knee pressed hard against his neck. Within minutes, George Floyd was dead.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: I live in Canada. On the cable news networks there here has been nothing but non-stop coverage making the claim that that there is nothing but systemic racism in CANADA!

Update: Gutfeld's remarks on the media is spot on.

Update #2: And people wonder why are there "food deserts" in some of these communities .... Chicago’s South Side Left With Few Food Options After Weekend Violence (CBS Chicago).

Update #3: Here is a must read analysis on two Americas. From Instapundit .... one crucial element of the George Floyd crisis is how it has exposed the stark chasm between those who view America through the bloody lens of collective guilt and those who cherish it for its emphasis on individual innocence and guilt. Joshua Mitchell, a Georgetown University politics professor lays it out in a manner so succinct that I pray it doesn’t get him fired .... George Floyd: Between Paganism and Christianity (Joshua Mitchell, Providence).

Update #4: This Washington Post writer wants to shut down all the cop shows .... WASHINGTON POST: Let’s cancel all the cop shows on TV.

A Disastrous Year For The Main Stream Media

Sara Fischer, Axios: A year of media upheaval

2019 was a transformative year for the U.S. news media industry, but it was also one of the most turbulent points in its history.

The big picture: There were enormous business challenges, which resulted in an unprecedented number of layoffs, desperate product maneuvers and fire-sale deals.

Driving the news: The impeachment of President Trump by the House of Representatives on Thursday was prompted by a whistleblower's complaint, but the stage was set by the dogged reporting of many journalists across the country.

* But despite those efforts, the economic outlook of the news industry is still grim heading into 2020.
* The impeachment process has proven that voters are starting to tune out political coverage, which for the past few years has been the news industry's biggest money-maker. That reality, coupled with an anticipated recession, has newsrooms on edge.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: Media is losing its audience.  There are now so many alternatives to getting the news that the old ways of reading a newspaper or watching the news on TV just no longer hold. Twenty-five years ago I would easily go through six major news papers a day and watch the evening news every night. Today .... I get all of my news from the web, and from sources that I trust.

How To Read Western News

Patrick Armstrong, Strategic Culture: Back to the USSR: How to Read Western News

The heroes of Dickens' Pickwick Papers visit the fictional borough of Eatanswill to observe an election between the candidates of the Blue Party and the Buff Party. The town is passionately divided, on all possible issues, between the two parties. Each party has its own newspaper: the Eatanswill Gazette is Blue and entirely devoted to praising the noble Blues and excoriating the perfidious and wicked Buffs; the Eatanswill Independent is equally passionate on the opposite side of every question. No Buff would dream of reading the "that vile and slanderous calumniator, the Gazette", nor Blue the ''that false and scurrilous print, the Independent".

Read more ....

WNU Editor: This is exactly how I approach the news when I see and/or read it.

Why Today's Journalists Are Not 'Guardians Of The Truth'

This combination photo provided by Time magazine shows its four covers for its 2018 “Person of the Year.”

Rex Murphy, National Post: Time is wrong. Today's journalists are not 'guardians of the truth'

Contemporary journalism is frequently as wayward as the social media it deplores. It has long since given up any attempt to be objective.

Time, that tattered, shrunken revenant of a once-popular news magazine, continues in its endless decline to delude itself that it has either the authority or the competence to name the “Person of the Year.” Brilliantly it named journalists — “The Guardians” — as 2018’s collective heroes, with Jamal Khashoggi given pride of place on the once-iconic cover. Time neglected to check on Khashoggi and now finds that it nominated a Qatar stooge, whose columns were midwifed by officers in the Qatar government, and whose “journalistic” career was but a distracting pendant to his many more serious activities, latterly as an anti-Saudi lobbyist, nephew to the one-time world’s biggest arms dealer, and a host of other shadowy mésalliances. The neatest summary I have read of Khashoggi, the journalist, is: “a highly-partisan operative who worked with a handler to publish propaganda at the behest of the Emirate of Qatar … in other words, an agent of influence.”

Read more ....

WNU Editor: Regular readers know that I am always skeptical of the media. I guess being exposed to years of Soviet media news reports and lies made me become that type of person. But here is a real good post from Canadian commentator Rex Murphy, who unravels it all with a blow-torch.

How The Media Sustains Political Warfare

Instapundit

Kyle Jensen and Jack Selzer, The Conversation: How the media encourages – and sustains – political warfare

Since his inauguration, President Donald Trump has been waging war against the American press by dismissing unfavorable reports as “fake news” and calling the media “the enemy of the American people.”

As a countermeasure, The Washington Post has publicly fact-checked every claim that Trump has labeled as fake. In August, The Boston Globe coordinated editorials from newspapers across the nation to push back against Trump’s attacks on the press. The Associated Press characterized this effort as the declaration of a “war of words” against Trump.

News organizations might frame themselves as the besieged party in this “war.” But what if they’re as much to blame as the president in this back-and-forth? And what if readers are to blame as well?

Read more ....

WNU Editor: Regular readers of this blog know that I have been a critic of the media since the beginning .... on how they covered President Bush and President Obama when they were in the White House, to how they cover President Trump. The difference today is that there is a now President who fights back via through Twitter and other media forums on how the media covers news stories, and more importantly, educates the public on how they do it. To say that the blow-back from the media has been overwhelmingly negative and in many cases hateful is an understatement Fortunately .... IMHO .... some people are noticing it .... If You Ignore the News, America Actually Seems Pretty Nice (Justin Fox, Bloomberg)

Why Is CNN Refusing To Correct A Trump News Story That Has Been Debunked And Refuted By Every Other News Agency?

Photo: YouTube/CNN

Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept: CNN, Credibly Accused of Lying to its Audience About a Key Claim in its Blockbuster Cohen Story, Refuses to Comment

CNN’s blockbuster July 26 story – that Michael Cohen intended to tell Special Counsel Robert Mueller that he was present when Donald Trump was told in advance about his son’s Trump Tower meeting with various Russians – includes a key statement about its sourcing that credible reporting now suggests was designed to have misled its audience. Yet CNN simply refuses to address the serious ethical and journalistic questions raised about its conduct.

The substance of the CNN story itself regarding Cohen – which made headline news all over all the world and which CNN hyped as a “bombshell” – has now been retracted by other news outlets that originally purported to “confirm” CNN’s story. That’s because the anonymous source for this confirmation, Cohen lawyer Lanny Davis, now admits that, in essence, his “confirmation” was false. As a result, both the Washington Post and the NY Post outed Davis as their anonymous source and then effectively retracted their stories “confirming” parts of CNN’s report.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: The CNN story is here .... Cohen claims Trump knew in advance of 2016 Trump Tower meeting (Jim Sciutto, Carl Bernstein and Marshall Cohen, CNN). The source for this CNN story has admitted that it is not true .... so why is CNN still sticking to their story? IMHO there are two reasons .... Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame is on the byline for this story, and CNN does not want to damage his reputation, but more importantly, CNN wants this story to be true. In short .... CNN is not interested in seeking the truth, they are more focused on convincing people on what they believe is the truth. And that in a nutshell is what is currently wrong with the U.S. main stream media when it comes to covering the news.

Fake News And The Battle For The Truth

AFP: The online battle for the truth

False information is saturating political debate worldwide and undermining an already weak level of trust in the media and institutions, spreading further than ever on powerful social networks.

US President Donald Trump has popularised the term "fake news", using it mainly as an accusation levelled at the media, and it is increasingly used by politicians from Spain to China, Myanmar or Russia.

"Fake news" has been generalised to mean anything from a mistake to a parody or a deliberate misinterpretation of facts.

At the same time, the proliferation of false online information is increasingly visible in attempts to manipulate elections, notoriously surrounding Trump's 2016 victory.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: Truth be told the news media has always presented news that supported an agenda or a specific political view. It is done by focusing on news stories that promote this agenda, while avoiding those stories that do not. What is also different now is that the proliferation of numerous sources of news has broken the old monopolies that controlled the news in the past. Social media has also presented a platform where news media's reports can be either promoted or deciphered and disproved. From my view point I believe we are entering a new era on how we obtain information, and how this information is spread and shared. My concern/fear is that these new platforms will only replace the news monopolies of old and become no different than how they operated. Will Facebook's news feed and Google's search results be manipulated to promote what they believe is important, while downgrading and/or minimizing viewpoints and news that they disagree with or does not fit into their agenda. My gut tells me that they will .... because they are already doing it.

Update: Here is a commentary from last year by Sheryl Atkinson that I think illustrates what is wrong with the news media of today .... Americans Have Just Cause To Not Trust The Media (August 21, 2017)

The Main Stream Media Is Feeling Very Smug About Themselves

Photograph of the briefing room on Feb. 7, 2017 by Doug Mills/The New York Times

Will Rahn, CBS: The unbearable smugness of the press

The mood in the Washington press corps is bleak, and deservedly so.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that, with a few exceptions, we were all tacitly or explicitly #WithHer, which has led to a certain anguish in the face of Donald Trump’s victory. More than that and more importantly, we also missed the story, after having spent months mocking the people who had a better sense of what was going on.

This is all symptomatic of modern journalism’s great moral and intellectual failing: its unbearable smugness. Had Hillary Clinton won, there’d be a winking “we did it” feeling in the press, a sense that we were brave and called Trump a liar and saved the republic.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: The above commentary by Will Rahn is spot on .... but here is an easy prediction .... none of his media colleagues are going to take his recommendations seriously.

The U.S. News Media Suffers Its Most Humiliating Debacle In Ages

Photo: YouTube/MSNBC

Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept: The U.S. Media Yesterday Suffered its Most Humiliating Debacle in Ages: Now Refuses All Transparency Over What Happened

Friday was one of the most embarrassing days for the U.S. media in quite a long time. The humiliation orgy was kicked off by CNN, with MSNBC and CBS close behind, with countless pundits, commentators and operatives joining the party throughout the day. By the end of the day, it was clear that several of the nation’s largest and most influential news outlets had spread an explosive but completely false news story to millions of people, while refusing to provide any explanation of how it happened.

The spectacle began on Friday morning at 11:00 am EST, when the Most Trusted Name in News™ spent 12 straight minutes on air flamboyantly hyping an exclusive bombshell report that seemed to prove that WikiLeaks, last September, had secretly offered the Trump campaign, even Donald Trump himself, special access to the DNC emails before they were published on the internet. As CNN sees the world, this would prove collusion between the Trump family and WikiLeaks and, more importantly, between Trump and Russia, since the U.S. intelligence community regards WikiLeaks as an “arm of Russian intelligence,” and therefore, so does the U.S. media.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: Could not have said it any better. For those who enjoy reading-up on how the U.S. news media covers the news, this is a must read.

This Is How President Trump 'Sucks All The Oxygen' In A Daily News Cycle

Zero Hedge: How Trump Mercilessly Trolls The Media In Five Simple Steps

Almost every morning Americans wake up to yet another Trump tweet storm that sends MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' hosts and guests into an absolute frenzy that begins with modest expressions of 'outrage' and ends with Joe Scarborough once again offering up his 'professional' medical opinion on Trump's mental health just before calling for his immediate impeachment.

Of course, as Axios points out today, that daily 'Morning Joe' meltdown is all part of Trump's simple 5-step plan to manipulate the media into covering precisely what he wants them to cover. Here's how it works...

Read more ....

WNU Editor: I first noticed this during the 2016 primaries, and how effective it was for then candidate Trump to completely monopolized the news cycle. And now as President .... he has refined it to an art where he now completely dominates the news. Good or bad .... it seems that President Trump does not care .... but what is important to him is to make sure that his message is out there. As a result .... his supporters continue to support him .... 82% of Donald Trump supporters say they would vote for him, again (Global News), and his opponents are in complete melt-down mode .... 'Morning Joe' Ups Ante: Calls for Cabinet-Led Coup, 'Sociopath' Trump Must Be Removed (Grabien News).

More Extreme Bias Exposed At The New York Times

The sun peaks over the New York Times Building in New York August 14, 2013. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Epoch Times: Undercover Video Shows Anti-Trump Bias of New York Times Staffer

A video containing undercover recordings published by Project Veritas on Oct. 10 shows the political bias against President Donald Trump by one of The New York Times editors in its video department.

In the recordings, Nicholas Dudich, the Times’ Audience Strategy Editor for video, claims to have worked for the political campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and shows that he has no problem bringing his political bias into news stories.

When asked by an undercover reporter whether he can make sure his message is heard as a gatekeeper for videos at The New York Times, he replies, “my imprint is on every video we do …. so I like that.”

In a different recording Dudich quips, “I will be ‘objective.’ No I’m not. That’s why I’m there.”

Read more ....

Update: O'Keefe Strikes Again, Catches NYT Editors On Hidden Camera: "Targeting Trump's Businesses, His Dumb F**k Of A Son" (Zero Hedge).

WNU editor: I am posting this story because I have been a New York Times reader since the 1980s ... and I am a current paid subscriber. I have always regarded their coverage of international news to be excellent, while on the flip side I have always regarded their coverage of U.S. politics to be beyond horrible. That is why I am not surprised by this Project Veritas expose .... even if 10% of it is only true, it is a sad indictment of the paper that prides itself to be one of the best in America. And here is an easy prediction .... the Times’ Audience Strategy Editor for video Nicholas Dudich who has been exposed is probably going to be told to resign .... and for the simple reason because he told the truth. On a side note .... and talk about bad timing .... New York Times Op-Ed Nicholas Kristof emailed me this link this morning (yes .... people from the New York Times do read this blog). Even though I am usually in disagreement with Nicholas Kristof, he treats people with respect and consideration .... and he represents what I believe a journalist should be. But Mr. Kristof .... your newspaper has a serious problem if  people like Nicholas Dudich are hanging around.

This Is Going To Be The Future Of News (And I Hope The Future Of This Blog)

Photo from Meme Guy

AFP: Future of news: bracing for next wave of technology

Washington (AFP) - If you think technology has shaken up the news media -- just wait, you haven't seen anything yet.

The next wave of disruption is likely to be even more profound, according to a study presented Saturday to the Online News Association annual meeting in Washington.

News organizations which have struggled in the past two decades as readers moved online and to mobile devices will soon need to adapt to artificial intelligence, augmented reality and automated journalism and find ways to connect beyond the smartphone, the report said.

"Voice interface" will be one of the big challenges for media organizations, said the report by Amy Webb, a New York University Stern School of Business faculty member and Founder of the Future Today Institute.

The institute estimates that 50 percent of interactions that consumers have with computers will be using their voices by 2023.

"Once we are speaking to our machines about the news, what does the business model for journalism look like?" the report said.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: I was struck when I read this article this afternoon because it outlines how future developments will impact this blog in the near future .... a future that I am well aware of. This past summer I have been looking at ways to use new technologies to enhance the experience that readers of this blog can have when they are browsing the stories that are posted on WNU. This includes using video to highlight stories and analysis (a short daily video summarising what I think is important and why), a program to specifically collect news and compile it for posting in the matter that Google News does in the event that the reader wants more information (but using specified sources while respecting copyright laws), and wondering how to incorporate "voice interface", and who will be the first to present such a platform to users like me. The way we obtain and read the news is changing .... and yes .... video and AI platforms feeding the info and commentary that we want (and what we prioritise) is the future. A future that from my vantage point and from I am reading .... is probably only a few years away.

What Is Missing From Ken Burns 'Vietnam'

Bing West, NYPost: Missing from Ken Burns’ ‘Vietnam’: The patriotism and pride of those who fought

To understand Ken Burns’ 18-hour Vietnam documentary, listen to the music. The haunting score tells you: This will be a tale of misery. And indeed, Burns and his co-author Geoffrey C. Ward conclude their script by writing, “The Vietnam War was a tragedy, immeasurable and irredeemable. But meaning can be found in the individual stories . . .”

The film is meticulous in the veracity of the hundreds of factoids that were selected. Everything depicted on the American side actually happened. But that the chosen facts are accurate doesn’t mean the film gets everything right. Indeed, the brave American veterans are portrayed with a keen sense of regret and embarrassment about the war, a distortion that must not go unanswered. And the film implies an unearned moral equivalence between antiwar protesters and those who fought.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: I noticed the same thing .... and it is my pet peeve when it comes to how the media operates. It is not what is reported that irks me .... it is what the main stream media chooses to ignore that bothers me.

Americans Have Just Cause To Not Trust The Media

Sharyll Attkinsson, The Hill: Americans don't trust the media, and for good reason

Trust in the mass media is at an all-time low. Two-thirds of Americans believe the mainstream press publishes fake news.

Yes, there’s still much good journalism to be found, if you know where to look. Yet, ask reporters who’ve been around a while, and many will tell you that a lot of good journalism is being left unpublished. Good journalists hate what’s happening to the news.

We have only ourselves to blame.

Firewalls that once strictly separated news from opinion have been replaced by hopelessly blurred lines. Once-forbidden practices such as editorializing within straight news reports, and the inclusion of opinions as if fact, are not only tolerated; they’re encouraged.

Read more ....

WNU editor: Sharyll Attkinsson is right. If I was to do a blog on the media and how it covers stories, avoid stories, and (heaven forbid) alter and distort stories .... I will be busy 24/7.

Should We Start Another Cold War Because John Podesta Fell For A Phishing Scam?

Glenn Harlan Reynolds, USA Today: Russians! Under my bed!: Glenn Reynolds

John Podesta fell for a phishing scam. Let's not start another Cold War over that.

If there’s any single statement that President Obama probably wishes he could undo, it was his mockery of Mitt Romney during the 2012 presidential debates. Referring to Romney’s characterization of Russia as America’s greatest geopolitical foe, Obama said the 1980s are calling and they want their foreign policy back.

Now of course, Democrats are up in arms about the Russians, sounding like madcap John Birchers from the 1960s. As Twitter wag IowaHawk noted, they didn’t get upset when Russia invaded Crimea; they didn’t throw down when Russia shot down a civilian airliner over Ukraine; but stealing John Podesta’s password via a phishing scam is apparently grounds for restarting the Cold War. Well, only one of these crimes constitutes a threat to Democrats’ political power.

Read more ....

Update #1: WashPost Is Richly Rewarded for False News About Russia Threat While Public Is Deceived (Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept)
Update #2: Something About This Russia Story Stinks (Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone)
Update #3: The Russian Election Hacking Case Is Getting Murkier (Investors Business Daily editorial)

WNU Editor: I always find it interesting when you have libertarians like Glenn Reynolds, conservative web sites like the Investors Business Daily, and liberal sites like the Intercept and Rolling Stone .... all sharing the same opinion which is .... this Russian hacking story and the reaction to it  does not add up.

Why Some Wars Get More Media Attention Than Others

Damage in a house after a Saudi-led airstrike last month in Yemen, whose war has not gotten much attention. Credit Mohamed Al-Sayaghi/Reuters

Amanda Taub, The Interpreter/New York Times: Why Some Wars (Like Syria’s) Get More Attention Than Others (Like Yemen’s)

It is a truth universally acknowledged by every war correspondent, humanitarian aid worker and Western diplomat: Some wars, like Syria’s, receive tremendous public attention, which can translate into pressure for resolution. But many others, like Yemen’s still raging but much ignored conflict, do not.

Some of the reasons are obvious; the scale of Syria’s war is catastrophic and much worse than Yemen’s. But attention is about more than numbers. The conflict in eastern Congo, for instance, killed millions of people and displaced millions more, but received little global attention.

Every country in the world has its own version of that dynamic, but it is uniquely significant in the United States.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: Another reason why there is a lot of media attention on Syria is because of the refugee crisis. If a million Yemenis were to leave their country and try to make it to Europe .... the media spotlight and attention will change quickly.

How And Why Did The U.S. Media Miscalculate The Hillary Clinton Health Story

Clinton being helped prior to slumping and being pulled into her van. Courtesy: Zdenek Gazda on Twitter

Sharyl Attkisson: The News Media’s Miscalculation on Hillary’s Health

I watched the video of Hillary Clinton as she faltered, slumped and then apparently got dragged into her van, and I felt awful. Public officials put themselves in the public eye, but to have every step and misstep analyzed the way we do today seems to be a no-win situation. I wouldn’t want someone videotaping me when I had a migraine headache or–as I did several times in my 20’s working in Florida–became faint and dehydrated. I join with many Americans who wish Clinton the best, and a speedy recovery from what her doctors say is a case of pneumonia and dehydration.

But the incident raises questions about the news media’s coverage surrounding Clinton’s health. Rather than reporting the facts, many in the media have taken it upon themselves to shout down the questions and to controversialize those asking them. On August 21, 2016, after Trump adviser Rudolph Giuliani suggested people research Clinton’s medical state on Google, a New York Times tech columnist retorted in a tweet:

“Google should fix this. It shouldn’t give quarter to conspiracy theorists.” Tweet by Farhad Manjoo of the New York Times, 8/21/2016.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: I have been consuming U.S. news since the 1980s .... and I have never seen it as bias as this. This is why this blog uses sources from different countries when posting on a major news story .... at least the media in other countries are not influenced by the U.S. echo chamber.

President Obama's Deputy National Security Adviser Reveals How The White House Spins Its Media Message On Foreign Policy

Rhodes (center) and Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, listening as President Obama spoke to reporters during an off-the-record discussion. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

New York Times: The Aspiring Novelist Who Became Obama’s Foreign-Policy Guru

How Ben Rhodes rewrote the rules of diplomacy for the digital age.

Picture him as a young man, standing on the waterfront in North Williamsburg, at a polling site, on Sept. 11, 2001, which was Election Day in New York City. He saw the planes hit the towers, an unforgettable moment of sheer disbelief followed by panic and shock and lasting horror, a scene that eerily reminded him, in the aftermath, of the cover of the Don DeLillo novel “Underworld.”

Everything changed that day. But the way it changed Ben Rhodes’s life is still unique, and perhaps not strictly believable, even as fiction. He was in the second year of the M.F.A. program at N.Y.U., writing short stories about losers in garden apartments and imagining that soon he would be published in literary magazines, acquire an agent and produce a novel by the time he turned 26. He saw the first tower go down, and after that he walked around for a while, until he ran into someone he knew, and they went back to her shared Williamsburg apartment and tried to find a television that worked, and when he came back outside, everyone was taking pictures of the towers in flames. He saw an Arab guy sobbing on the subway. “That image has always stayed with me,” he says. “Because I think he knew more than we did about what was going to happen.” Writing Frederick Barthelme knockoffs suddenly seemed like a waste of time.

Read more ....

Update #1: Obama's Foreign Policy Guru Boasts of How the Administration Lied to Sell the Iran Deal (Lee Smith, Weekly Standard)
Update #2: Seven Takeaways from the NY Times Profile of Failed Novelist Ben Rhodes (David Rutz, Washington Free Beacon)

WNU Editor: This is sweet ....

.... He had also developed a healthy contempt for the American foreign-policy establishment, including editors and reporters at The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker and elsewhere, who at first applauded the Iraq war and then sought to pin all the blame on Bush and his merry band of neocons when it quickly turned sour. If anything, that anger has grown fiercer during Rhodes’s time in the White House. He referred to the American foreign-policy establishment as the Blob. According to Rhodes, the Blob includes Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates and other Iraq-war promoters from both parties who now whine incessantly about the collapse of the American security order in Europe and the Middle East.

To say that I am surprised that the New York Times is posting a story on how the White House crafts its media message on foreign policy .... and none of it is "pretty" or "flattering" .... is an understatement. We all know instinctively that governments lie, but it is rare when we are served the details on how they do it. And as for Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes .... a man who apparently cultivates anonymity .... I suspect that he is probably in shock right now with this expose .... or he does not give a shit. Either way .... this New York Times post is a must read.

Is The US Liberal Media 'Giving Up' On President Obama's Iraq Policy?

General David Petraeus gives then-Senator Obama an aerial tour of Baghdad in 2008. (Reuters/Lorie Jewell/Multi-National Forces Iraq Public Affairs)

Obama's Disastrous Iraq Policy: An Autopsy -- Peter Beinart, The Atlantic

The president ignored the country and its increasingly dictatorial prime minister for years.

Yes, the Iraq War was a disaster of historic proportions. Yes, seeing its architects return to prime time to smugly slam President Obama while taking no responsibility for their own, far greater, failures is infuriating.

But sooner or later, honest liberals will have to admit that Obama’s Iraq policy has been a disaster. Since the president took office, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has grown ever more tyrannical and ever more sectarian, driving his country’s Sunnis toward revolt. Since Obama took office, Iraq watchers—including those within his own administration—have warned that unless the United States pushed hard for inclusive government, the country would slide back into civil war. Yet the White House has been so eager to put Iraq in America’s rearview mirror that, publicly at least, it has given Maliki an almost-free pass. Until now, when it may be too late.

Read more ....

My Comment: Peter Beinart is as liberal as you can get in Washington .... and he .... like much of the liberal media .... have been giving a "pass" to many of President Obama's foreign policy initiates/policies/failures/etc. for the past 5 years.

No more now.

Peter Beinart's assessment on the White House's Iraq strategy is brutal in this post .... and his analysis is accurate. I do not know if this is the start of a US media shift in how they cover the White House when it comes to foreign policy .... but it is a welcome first sign.

How Today's Media Bias Works

The Administration Claimed A Video, Not Preplanned Terrorism, Was Responsible for the Benghazi Attack for 12 Days -- Ace Of Spades

If you haven't seen this -- or emailed it to others -- then watch it, and then email it to others.

Especially noteworthy is Ayaman Al-Zawahiri, the current "Spiritual Leader" of Al Qaeda, calling for vengeance in Libya for the death of one of its operatives there, just days before the vengeance occurred.

And the administration didn't evacuate the embassy, or send Marines, or even give it security more effective than door locks.

Krauthammer calls out his liberal colleagues, including Nina Totenberg and Mark Sheids, to their faces, and Nina Totenberg literally chuckles it off.

Let me explain why this is different than previous bias.

Read more ....

My Comment: Ace of Spades nails it on how dysfunctional and bias the U.S. media has become in this post.

I first started following/watching/and reading U.S. news reports when Ronald Reagan was running for President in 1980. At that time I could not believe how horrible and bias the media coverage was .... but what saved Ronald Reagan's run for the Presidency was not only his ability to talk over the "talking heads", but double digit unemployment, double digit interest rates, and double digit inflation .... a perfect storm to defeat an incumbent.

In today's main stream media world the media is functioning not only with the same bias, but they are now deliberately avoiding and/or not reporting on key news stories. The Benghazi story is one of these stories, where all the breaking and informative coverage has come from outside the U.S. (i.e. England, Australia, etc.) .... and definitely not from U.S. news sources.

I have been saying for the past few years that 'thank God' for the internet and new media .... as a news junkie and one who craves intel and info .... I would definitely be ill served if I was to rely on these sources. And while I still admire and respect these incredible institutions (i.e. New York Times, Washington Post, the alphabet networks, etc.) .... I do forsee the day when they will only be shells of their former self .... with other news media sources doing the job that we expect a news media company should do.