Archive for the ‘media’ Category

Is media’s deep interest in fatal Illinois car accident explained by the driver accused of murder pleading guilty to January 6 riot crimes?

Posted: November 27, 2022 by John Ruberry in crime, media, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

On the evening of November 8, a woman from Skokie, Illinois, which is the town just east of where I live, was tragically killed in an automobile accident on Interstate 55 just south of Springfield, Illinois. 

The victim, Lauren Wegner, 35, by all accounts a wonderful woman, was fatally injured when a GMC Sierra, according to police officials driven by Shane Woods, 44 of Auburn, Illinois, drove the wrong way on the interstate.

The Chicago media and other sources in the Prairie State have been repeatedly reporting on this story. And a primary reason for its deep interest in it appears to be because Woods, also known as Shane Castleman, pleaded guilty in September to assaulting a Capitol Police officer and a media photographer during the January 6 riot at the US Capitol. He is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in January. Woods faces up to eight years in prison for those crimes. Woods of course faces much more serious prison time if he is found guilty of killing Wegner–from 20 to 60 years. He has been charged with first degree murder, eluding a police officer, aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol, and aggravated fleeing. Woods is being held in the Sangamon County Jail, bail has been denied.

Once again, and probably not for the last time, I feel it is important that I unequivocally denounce the January 6 riot at the Capitol. Those people who stormed the Capitol on that sad day, including Woods, who destroyed property and attacked people deserve to be punished.

But just like MSNBC, the Illinois media can’t let go of obsessing over January 6. In regard to the Wegner death, the worst example of that obsession in regard to the Woods story is a State Journal-Register article from November 16 that was as much about the Capitol riot and Donald Trump as it was about the victim. The piece even mentions two men from Springfield who also allegedly participated in the riot–both of whom have no connection to the accident that killed Wegner. Was that necessary?

Absolutely, the January 6 angle is a valid part of the story of the fatal accident, as it appears Woods may have been trying to commit suicide when he started his SUV on the evening of November 8.

Here are some of the Illinois media headlines of stories that I found about the deadly car accident after a Google News search. Yes, some national outlets picked up the story too.

Also, Shia Kapos’ Politico Illinois Playbook newsletter linked to January 6/Woods stories on November 14, 16, 17, and 23.

Media obsession over January 6? I believe so. But I expect the drumbeat to continue. As for Woods, he is a despicable person.

Memorial contributions in the name of Lauren Wegner can be made to Community Animal Rescue Effort of Skokie (carenorthshore.org).

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

DaTechGuy’s 3rd Law of Media Outrage Mx Aldrich Edition or What a Difference 24 hours makes. UPDATE the Big Question

Posted: November 23, 2022 by datechguy in crime, media
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Yesterday I was on twitter When I guy named Kyle Clark out of Denver who appears to be a blue checked journalist tweeted out something concerning the murders at the gay nightclub in Colorado that I decided was worth a response:

This led to a long exchange with someone called link12212 who did not care for my response. I pointed out that per the collective guilt argument he was making leftists as a whole responsible for burning of cities, the mass shooting in Milwaukee after an NBA playoff game, the mass murder in Waukesha, the attempted copy cat attack in Winter Garden and of course any attack on any Mosque or member of Islam since they of course happily execute gays simply for being gay.

You can read the full exchange from those tweets as these events are a great example of DaTechGuy’s 3rd law of media outrage which states:

The MSM’s elevation and continued classification of any story as Nationally Newsworthy rather than only of local interest is in direct correlation to said story’s current ability to affirm any current Democrat/Liberal/Media meme/talking point, particularly on the subject of race or sexuality.

This of course fits things to a T as the left as a whole was busy targeting conservatives over this all morning. But while I was at work an interesting development took place:

The public defenders for the suspect in the mass shooting at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub said in a Tuesday night court filing obtained by a New York Times reporter that their client is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns.

This is a really devastating to the whole “Blame Tucker Carlson” business that Link closed our exchange on:

https://twitter.com/link12213/status/1595048142365687808

So given what we’ve seen from the MSM in the past I suspect that the Murders at the Colorado gay bar will go from a national story to a local story faster than you can say: Secoriea Turner or as Ed Driscoll put it at Instapundit:

AND JUST LIKE THAT, THE MEMORY HOLE OPENS UP

Unexpectedly of course

Now while the loss of Mr. Link122 supposed moral high ground from which he played the collective guilt card might be problematic with a nonbinary killer this of course changes nothing for me as my opinion can remain constant, namely that regardless of his pronouns MX Aldrich be held responsible for his crime and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law rather than blaming others.

See how much easier that is.

Update: The moment the story became a local one live on CNN

Update 2: Two awful thoughts

  1. Could the decision not to prosecute the previous crime and the sealing of the records be related to the killers non-binary status?
  2. How will the families of the dead react when the media suddenly decides the killing of their loved ones are no longer newsworthy?

Under the Fedora The Fruits of Obama, Freeman and Angels, Biden now expendable, Nancy Pelosi as Ace Rothstein and awaiting the first $1000 Oil Bill

Posted: November 22, 2022 by datechguy in elections, media, politics, under the fedora
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One factor in the use of the government as a weapon against the Political foes of the left that isn’t discussed is that this is the fruit of the Obama years.

Obama was always a cheap Chicago pol and he used his high position to transform the federal government and the system into the Chicago way where government is used to enrich friends and punish enemies.

Till those Obama types are purged we’re not going to see things change.

In his famous appearance on Phil Donahue’s show Milton Freeman when questioned by Donahue on the excesses of capitalism replied: “just tell me where in the world you find these angels who are going to organize society for us?” This is a basic principle of life that people tend of act in their own self interest. And since most people aren’t angels particularly in government the best way to create ethical behavior is to make such behavior profitable.

That’s really the secret, if you make the rewards of honorable behavior strong enough then the risks of unethical behavior are not worthwhile.

CBS has suddenly decided that the Hunter Biden laptop stuff is real.

This in my opinion is a definite signal that they have decided than in a possible match with Trump in 2024 Joe Biden in expendable.

The real question is will Biden fight (Jill that is) I don’t think Joe has much fight in him, but he does know where the bodies are.

The moment I heard that Nancy Pelosi was dropping herself from the leadership but staying in congress all I could think of was the movie Casino with Hakeem Jeffries playing the role of Phillip Green. I suspect that the new leadership will not make any move that is not approved by Nancy as she, like Biden knows where the bodies are buried.

Personally I think the only reason for this is to remove Pelosi and a fundraising meme for the GOP.

Finally it’s starting to get cold and the heat has been on in the house. That means that the first oil delivery of the new Biden season is coming for me and a lot of other folks.

I get about 200 gallons per delivery which is going to likely run over $1000 as opposed to the $500-$600 that it would have in the Trump years.

If this doesn’t change the voting patterns of folks in New England nothing will.

The mainstream media is avoiding calling disgraced Democrat contributor Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX a megadonor

Posted: November 20, 2022 by John Ruberry in crime, elections, media, News/opinion, politics
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By John Ruberry

While increasingly irrelevant, the mainstream media is still a force to be reckoned with in regard to shaping opinion. Despite paywalls at many newspaper and magazine sites, revenue is down, and layoffs are up. The paywalls of course limit readership, and usually, considering what is produced by the MSM, that’s a good thing.

You probably that FTX, a Bahamas-based cryptocurrency firm that is incorporated in Antigua and Barbuda, filed for bankruptcy protection a few days after Election Day.

Oh, Election Day, is that a non-sequitur? 

Nope.

The co-founder, and until November 11, the CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, was the second-largest contributor to Democrats in the 2022 midterms. Nearly $40 million in SBF funds went to the Dems, most of that money ended up in three Democrat-PACs. Only George Soros, who made his fortune in currency trading, donated more to the Dems during the midterm cycle.

Bankman-Fried, often referred to as SBF, has not been charged with any crimes. Still, there are comparisons being made between SBF and Ponzi-schemer Bernie Madoff, as well as the collapse of Enron. Bankman-Fried’s successor at FTC, John Ray III, who did the best he could in cleaning up Enron, had this to say about his new employer, “Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here.” Larry Summers, alluded to the Enron debacle too. “The smartest guys in the room. Not just financial error but — certainly from the reports — whiffs of fraud,” the former Treasury secretary under Barack Obama said. “Vast explosion of wealth that nobody quite understands where it comes from.”

And I believe there is a bit of the Fyre Fest hoaxster, Billy McFarland, embedded in Bankman-Fried’s mental DNA.

Notwithstanding Summers remark, there have been few if any screams of anger from prominent Democrats about the FTX ruination. I wonder why. Not!

The mainstream media coverage of Bankman-Fried has largely avoided this word–megadonor. Which is of course how the MSM reflexively labels major Republican campaign contributors such as Ken Griffin, Andy Sabin, Ronald Lauder and so many more. When I entered “megadonor” into the Google News site this morning and their names popped up. Not so much with SBF–and most of those mentions came from conservative-leaning sites such as Fox Business and the Washington Free Beacon. NBC News managed to use the word “megadonor” in an article about SBF–but take a look at the mournful headline that accompanied that story: Crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried’s downfall could deprive Democrats of key donor.

We used to see similar media malpractice–until bloggers and conservative journalists repeatedly called the MSM out on it–with the phrase “mass shooting” only being used when the evil perpetrator was a white male. 

You know who else is almost never called a megadonor by the media? 

George Soros. 

Media bias is like the Hydra, a beast from Greek mythology. There are so many heads that need to be sliced off. 

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Update: Welcome HOTAIR Headline readers John is one of our original magnificent seven writers. He writes here every Sunday.

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