Archive for the ‘media’ Category

DaTruth and DaTimes

Posted: August 25, 2020 by chrisharper in media, Uncomfortable Truths

By Christopher Harper

Against the backdrop of the investigations into Russia and Ukraine, the New York Times failed to mention one of the most egregious failures about the region propagated by the news organization itself.

Fortunately, a recently released motion picture, Mr. Jones, provides the details of how DaTimes manipulated the American public about the Soviet Union and the Ukraine famine, which resulted in the deaths of millions of people.

The film, directed by Agnieszka Holland, recounts the story of Moscow bureau chief Walter Duranty, a chief propagandist for Josef Stalin, and how Welsh journalist Gareth Jones tried to unmask the gross falsehoods created by the then-venerated Times scribe.

Duranty, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Soviet Union in 1931, dismissed Jones’ first-hand accounts of the famine, known as the Holomodor.

Here are some excerpts from Duranty’s reports:

–New York Times, November 15, 1931: “There is no famine or actual starvation, nor is there likely to be.”

–New York Times, August 23, 1933: “Any report of a famine in Russia is today an exaggeration or malignant propaganda.”

–New York Times, December 9, 1932: “Enemies and foreign critics can say what they please. Weaklings and despondents at home may groan under the burden, but the youth and strength of the Russian people is essentially at one with the Kremlin’s program, believes it worthwhile and supports it, however hard be the sledding.”

–New York Times, May 14, 1933: “You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.”

At the time, Duranty was so influential that his reporting is credited for convincing FDR to establish diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.

Although Jones and others provided extensive evidence to refute Duranty’s reporting, it wasn’t until 2003 that the Pulitzer Board and DaTimes itself finally sought outside analysis of the work.

The Pulitzer “Board determined that Mr. Duranty’s 1931 work, measured by today’s standards for foreign reporting, falls seriously short…. However, the Board concluded that there was not clear and convincing evidence of deliberate deception, the relevant standard in this case….The famine of 1932-1933 was horrific and has not received the international attention it deserves. By its decision, the Board in no way wishes to diminish the gravity of that loss. The Board extends its sympathy to Ukrainians and others in the United States and throughout the world who still mourn the suffering and deaths brought on by Josef Stalin.”

Ironically, DaTimes’ review of Mr. Jones only references Duranty in passing. At least that’s more than what DaTimes said during the recent debate over Russia and Ukraine. 

H/T to my wife Elizabeth for suggesting we watch the film! See the trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=15&v=wtWSyFNT9qY&feature=emb_logo

Five One Liners Under Other Bloggers Fedora’s Shot in the Dark, According to Hoyt, Gates of Vienna, Blazing Cat Fur & Don Surber

Posted: August 23, 2020 by datechguy in blogs, crime, culture, economy, media
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Not unlike the Minneapolis city council drones who advocate defunding the police, but are paying thousands of dollars a day for security for themselves, Lightfoot is showing us all whose lives really matter.

From Shot in the Dark

There is no privilege like liberal privilege

A system that punishes people for things they did not do is called INjustice. It has always been so

Via According to Hoyt

If you punished people for what they actually did too many liberals would be in trouble.

If I am in violation of their terms of service today, I was also in violation in 2019, 2018, etc., all the way back to 2006.

Via Gates of Vienna

Nothing says a conservative site is effective more than being banned by PayPal.

“Waste is shameful and thriftiness is honorable,” Xi said, calling for a combination of “legislation, supervision, and long-term measures” to rein in waste under a “Clean Plate Campaign.” 

Via Blazing Cat Fur

I think this is a sign that China is closer to falling than anyone will admit.

Who, what, when, where, why, and how are not that difficult to write.

From Don Surber

Spoken like a Journalist educated before 1980.

CNN Polls, Obama statements, Millie Weaver meets Streisand , Manipulation, NBA Ratings, and liberal Suicide Under the Fedora

Posted: August 18, 2020 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, entertainment, media, nba, politics, Sports
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There is a big fuss about President Trump being only four points down on Biden in the latest CNN poll just before the Democrat convention.

Does it not occur to anyone that this is deliberate so that they can show a convention “bump” for Joe Biden at the end of the week?

After all, if we presume they are manipulating the polls why would they suddenly stop now?

Was slightly surprised to see Biden hit piece in Politico with a lot of stuff coming from Team Obama.

But the more I thought about it the less it was surprising. Biden is a losing candidate. This stuff coming out now is about Obama being able to say “well yeah I had to be pro-forma for Joe but I thought his nomination was a bad idea.”

This is about being able to make the case that when voters reject Biden they weren’t rejecting Obama’s 3rd term. I think that is the reason why Susan Rice wasn’t the VP pick. If she was on the ticket then it would be the Obama ticket.

I had never heard of Millie Weaver before Sunday Morning. When I heard about her arrest I followed a link and starting watching the shadowgate piece on youtube before I went to work.

When I got home it had been pulled for “hate speech” after over 1 million views. I did some searching and found it elsewhere and watched the rest before I hit the sack, still didn’t see any “hate speech” that Youtube cried.

This thing screams Streisand Effect and the idea that this arrest is over an old fight with her mom a few hours before her documentary was released is not credible.

If you want to see it the link to the video is here.

While I’m not watching any sports I have still been listening to sports radio stations when I am out. On Monday while running errands they were talking about the crashing ratings for the NBA.

It was hilarious to hear the excuses:

  • People got used to not watching
  • These games didn’t mean anything
  • It will change with the playoffs
  • etc etc etc…

The one thing that was never mentioned was going all in on BLM and social justice. That it was never brought up speaks volumes, apparently stating the obvious is completely VERBOTEN.

Finally the most amazing thing I’ve noticed lately is this entire COVID shutdown business, while designed to hurt Trump, has pretty much been liberal suicide.

Universities, Hollywood, public schools, Broadway, and big liberal cities are all falling apart while a good chunk of the rest of the country seems to be carrying on.

The number of liberal institutions that are crumbling under this is astounding. This deserves a longer post and I’ll likely write one later, but I’ll just note that if your goal was to destroy the infrastructure that supports Democrat memes and messages, I can’t see what you’d do differently

Want Accountable Government? Vote Trump

Posted: August 3, 2020 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, culture, elections, media, politics
Tags: , , ,

Four years ago when I re-endorsed Donald Trump after the Billy Bush tape dropped I posed this question to Jonah Goldberg:

Update 4: I respect Jonah Goldberg whose point is valid:

Either way, this video is not an aberration. It is not a special circumstance. It’s him. There’s no pivot in him. There’s no “presidential” switch to flip. He’s Donald Trump all the way down.

However given the reality that either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will be the next president of the United States I ask Jonah this question:

If we concede that Donald Trump’s character is bad, Would it be better for the country to have a President of poor character who will be under intense scrutiny by the press, pols and law enforcement agencies (Trump) or to have a President of poor character who will be given a pass and or defended by the press, the pols and apparently the FBI regardless of what they say or do (Hillary).

I submit and suggest the answer is clearly the former.

Now it’s four years later and on twitter a general question was asked as to why one supports Donald Trump for President. This was my answer:

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

However there are others who have a much dimmer opinion of the president & his accomplishment who find themselves in the Trump column this time around for completely different reasons:

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

While I have issues with some of the characterizations in this thread the primary point that is being made is rather critical

When it comes to the media/left is has now been amply demonstrated that DaTechGuy’s Laws of media outrage are in full force and no action by a Democrat, by the Democrat Party or even by people who are part of the Democrat base may be critiqued or highlighted if it might reflect badly on the potential return of Democrats to power or the maintenance of said power if it happens. And as Glenn Reynolds pointed out this view is not confined to pols and press:

It’s disappointing to see not just the usual gang of idiots, but also some people who should know better joining the hysteria here. As I said before, we had elections during the Civil War and there’s no need to delay them now. But once again, just because a tweet — or other presidential action — riles up the political class doesn’t make it an impeachable offense. And if our political class had been as dedicated to actually defending decency, decorum and tradition as it is determined to weaponize them against Trump, we wouldn’t have gotten Trump.

Amusingly on Facebook where this was originally posted, one person explicitly agrees with Steve Matthews’ legal argument — except for Trump. Because #OrangeManBad. Rule of law!

Put simply we now know that if the Democrats in general and Joe Biden in particular are given the reins of government, no action they take will be subject to critique by the mainstream media in print or television (except perhaps a 30 second segment at the end of Jake Tappers show to throw us a crumb).

However we can be assured that if Donald Trump is reelected, his words, his deeds, his facial expressions, his companies, their business dealings, his family and even his passing of gas will be scrutinized by this press to a level that will be the envy of the Chinese Totalitarian state (and likely financed by it too).

The bottom line is clear, if you don’t trust government and what to be sure that the press shines a bright light on anything it does, you need to re-elect Donald Trump.

If you however are a relative of a Democrat pol or of a large Democrat donor and want to be sure that you can get rich either off the taxpayer’s dime or via foreign money contributed to you as a favor. Well vote democrat.

Your call people.

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