Posts Tagged ‘media template’

The Pope, the Paper and the Prince of Darkness

Posted: May 12, 2014 by datechguy in catholic, catholic devotions, media
Tags: , , ,

Father Merrin: Especially important is the warning to avoid conversations with the demon. We may ask what is relevant but anything beyond that is dangerous. He is a liar. The demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us. But he will also mix lies with the truth to attack us. The attack is psychological, Damien, and powerful. So don’t listen to him. Remember that – do not listen.

The Exorcist 1972

They‘ll [the left] always tell us who they fear

Rush Limbaugh

One of the things we’ve talked about here at DaTechguy blog concerning Pope Francis has been how the media has tended to ignore stories that don’t fit the narrative they’ve constructed of him.

So I was really surprised to see the Washington Post decide that this aspect of Francis message warranted their attention

After his little more than a year atop the Throne of St. Peter, Francis’s teachings on Satan are already regarded as the most old school of any pope since at least Paul VI, whose papacy in the 1960s and 1970s fully embraced the notion of hellish forces plotting to deliver mankind unto damnation.

Largely under the radar, theologians and Vatican insiders say, Francis has not only dwelled far more on Satan in sermons and speeches than his recent predecessors have, but also sought to rekindle the Devil’s image as a supernatural entity with the forces­ of evil at his beck and call.

We’ve noticed the Pope’s willingness to bluntly talk about the devil before but apparently in this Harvard Black Mass world this seems to have gotten some people hackles up

by focusing on old-school interpretations of the Devil, some progressive theologians complain, the pope is undermining his reputation as a leader who in so many other ways appears to be more in step with modern society than his predecessor.

“He is opening the door to superstition,” said Vito Mancuso, a Catholic theologian and writer.

The complaints of progressive “catholic theologians” concerning “superstition” are as amusing as the Baptist minister who has no problem with Joshua stopping the sun, Jonah in the Whale, Christ feeding 5000 or Peter healing the cripple but calls the Eucharist a “magic trick”.  If you claim to be a Catholic theologian and say “the Devil is superstition” then you’re doing it wrong.

This is a real change for the press compared to his predecessor

“Had Pope Benedict done this, the media would have clobbered him.”

Mind you this is a rather mild critique yet the media giving air to any complaints at all to the first Latin American Pope is unusual.   I find it fascinating and telling that of all the things the Pope has done it is this that begins the attack upon him.

Why?

I suspect it’s because belief in the existence of the Devil runs counter to  the two pillars of the secular left: Moral relativism & consequence free action.  How can one promote hedonism and moral relativism without worry if there are not only absolute standards of good and evil but eternal consequences for the wrong choice?

Some ideas are just too dangerous to let stand and for the media this is the signal to turn.

They might have let a lot of things go but once you start acknowledging the Devil’s existence, that’s a bridge too far.

Update: It took a full week after the fact for Maureen Down to cry foul over the Vatican insisting Catholic nuns believe in Christ

I submit & suggest that if the Pope isn’t hitting the devil this pushback doesn’t come.

Update: Linked by the Anchoress Thanks, meanwhile Captain Ed Morrissey noting the Harvard black Mass BS from Harvard’s President explains why the Pope is talking so much about the devil

Perhaps it’s because it’s becoming more necessary.

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Joe Scarborough you really blew it today!

Posted: May 31, 2011 by datechguy in media, politics, tech
Tags: , , , ,

One of the things that has enabled the conservative blogosphere and Fox news has been the refusal of the MSM to cover stories that might portray a democrat in an unfavorable light.

The Monica Lewinsky case made Matt Drudge because Newsweek when given the chance to cover a story with every element that would attract readers; Sex, Power intrigue, declined.

The same thing happened with the John Edwards story. The MSM continued to ignore it until the National Enquirer caught him with the lady in a hotel.

Consider: If Newsweek does it’s job, how much smaller is Matt Drudge? Does he inspire others? Does an Andrew Breitbart who worked with Drudge get his start?

Let’s say you are a hard left person; what would you today give to have neutralized Matt Drudge and all those who would follow him?

And consider 2000. Do you think an incumbent Al Gore would have lost to George Bush? I think not.

Consider myself and the Weiner business. If the MSM reports do I end up with an Op-ed in the NY Post, or the Lars Larson radio and Fox TV gigs? Would I even get the Instalanche if the MSM makes the points that I did first?

Which brings me to Joe Scarborough again.

This morning I stated that this was an important show for Joe Scarborough. There is a definite connection between the show and Weiner but Joe Scarborough is very familiar with Twitter and would understand the potential problems with Rep. Weiner’s story.

Yet his own dismissal of Andrew Breitbart and association with people such as Joan Walsh of Salon who railed about the Weiner business being all about conservatives attacking teenage girls, and the Huffington Post who confined the story to the NY section, transformed any confrontation with Weiner from simple reporting to act of courage. It would be standing against the people he hangs with at parties and events. It is the type of thing that would make the “no labels” crowd uncomfortable.

Confronted with this choice, #weinergate was not covered in any segment, and his name was mentioned only in passing about “hacking” in general. It didn’t even make the “news you can’t use” segment. (Can you imagine this happening if the congressman in question was Paul Ryan?). No coverage of the lawyering up, no coverage of the alleged hacker offering to submit to investigations and no coverage of Rep Weiner choosing to not answer questions. Nothing.

Normally there would be no damage as only Fox would cover the story and their niche market would never hear about it. Unfortunately for Joe and Company CNN decided no act in a very atypical way for an MSM network.

Congressman Weiner was, to the surprise of even Andrew Breitbart, confronted by a CNN apparently deciding this was a job they would not outsource to Fox (when you are in 3rd place you apparently try harder). The result was classic TV.

https://web.archive.org/web/20110601101123if_/http://videos.mediaite.com/embed/player/?layout=&playlist_cid=&media_type=video&content=QVW38H2DT8L62BQX&read_more=1&widget_type_cid=svp

The media stars of the left were since the movie all the president’s men, brought up on drams of such confrontations all their lives. All those dreams involved Republicans, but lo and behold when a democrat is the subject it’s still great TV. CNN reporters will look at this and say: Why not me?

This is a disaster for MSNBC. Any MSNBC host this evening who wants to report on this has to show the CNN clip and the left of center viewers who would refuse to turn to FOX to see the story have no such qualms about watching CNN.

Tomorrow morning when this clip is shown on Morning Joe viewers will be wondering why they didn’t hear about this issue on the show. They will remember how many times Congressman Weiner has appeared on the show and will be amazed that they are hearing about this after the fact.

This is an embarrassment and a self-inflicted wound to the credibility of his show.

Why do I care? Two reasons:

1. Morning Joe is the only show on MSNBC that has the possibility of the entry of conservative opinions into their audience. Its fall would likely cause its replacement with a totally liberal show appealing the MBNBC’s niche Market.

2. I genuinely like these people. I’ve met Willie on one occasion and Mike Barnicle on several, they are nice regular guys. The type you would have a beer with and could talk straight with. I suspect Joe and Mika are too. Any parent who sees how Mika reacts around children or sees how she treats her father on the air can’t help but like her. Plus Joe once paid me a complement that was passed on through a 3rd party that was very important to me at the time and an American of Sicilian origin doesn’t forget a favor.

It is painful to watch them do this to their show. I hope they in the future take these words of Robert Stacy McCain to heart:

This story is what we call “news.” No matter how unseemly or inconsequential the story may superficially appear to be, it is entirely legitimate and potentially significant, and it is therefore a dereliction of journalistic duty to ignore or dismiss it.

My appearance on Fox 25 tomorrow precludes me from seeing tomorrow’s show, I sure hope they take what I said to heart but frankly I’m not sanguine.

Update: Poor Joe & Co. John Stewart was all over this. I’d bet real money the only clip they will play if any is the “it’s too big to be him” stuff.

Yup I’d hire a lawyer too if someone hacked my twitter account

Posted: May 30, 2011 by datechguy in media, politics, tech, the courts
Tags: , , ,

…and then decide not to comment.

After all isn’t this what everyone does?

A spokesman for Rep. Anthony Weiner, New York Democrat, told The Daily Caller the Congressman’s team has “retained counsel” and is exploring the “proper next steps” after his official Twitter account posted a picture of a man’s erect penis underneath gray boxer shorts. The internet-driven scandal has come to be known online as “#Weinergate,” a pun on the Congressman’s last name.

I don’t claim to be a law expert if I had a client that wanted advice on what to do if someone hacked my account, the legal conversation I would have would be in two sentences:

“Call the police, that will be $1000.”

Now I’m sure that Mr. Weiner’s counsel not being a fool is going to allow Rep Weiner to pay him big bucks for as long as possible, but rep Weiner’s decision to go this route is going to mean something else to even non-twitter familiar people. It certainly drew a reaction from Stacy McCain.

There are direct questions that Rep Weiner has chosen not to answer at this point. He retaining of a lawyer means that no answers will be forthcoming. This certainly does not bode well in terms of appearances and a media savvy congressman would know this.

One must conclude that given the choice of :

A: answering direct questions

OR

B: Taking actions that would cause reasonable people to conclude he is hiding something.

…Congressman Weiner has decided the less damaging action to his future ambitions is the later.

There is every possibility that Anthony Weiner will come out of this with a whole skin so to speak, but this latest action means that it will come at a cost in the minds of voters , apparently he is counting on the MSM to cover this with the same due diligence that they give any potential scandal that doesn’t involve a republican.

Update: Not to worry Anthony, you have Charles Johnson in your corner. That must bring a sigh of relief. Particularly when you are dealing with some masterful snark from Ace of Spades HQ:

…perhaps I’m being too hard on Congressman Weiner. I mean every PSA I’ve ever seen about crimes always urges people that if you are the victim of a crime or see one committed you should immediately call the cops retain counsel to help you consider your options.

I bet the idiot who illegally accessed Palin’s emails wishes he’d picked on Weiner instead. She called the cops but apparently Weiner is more forgiving of being violated.

Yup Rep Weiner is much too sophisticated to merely go after the “hacker” in court like that hick Sarah Palin did.

Update 2: A report on CNN showed Weiner in person claiming it was a hacker and pooh poohing it. That’s important. Strangely enough nobody at CNN thought to ask why the lady in question was being followed by Weiner. As for the continued “distraction” business, I remember hearing something like that back in the late 90′s from another democratic pol who loved the camera.

Update 3: Two days Two instalanches, and I suspect tomorrow will be even bigger

The Weiner case: There is spin and there is SPIN

Posted: May 30, 2011 by datechguy in media, politics
Tags: , ,

I so didn’t want to wake up typing, I have things to do, Herman Cain is just 2 hours away in New Hampshire, the wife and kids have the day off and I still don’t know where in NE Sarah Palin is going to be and I have two sample ads to write for a potential customer of the radio show.

Not to mention normal Memorial Day stuff.

And yet the Weiner case continues to beckon with developments that are not at all favorable to our friends on the left. So here I am back at the keyboard after mass trying to get an update in before the Memorial Day observance.

The young lady in question put out a statement yesterday that you will find at the New York Daily News, in it she makes some charges concerning a person on Twitter “harassed” her:

The account that these tweets were sent from was familiar to me; this person had harassed me many times after the Congressman followed me on Twitter a month or so ago. Since I had dealt with this person and his cohorts before I assumed that the tweet and the picture were their latest attempts at defaming the Congressman and harassing his supporters.

This will be read by the tens of thousands who read that paper.

What will likely not be read by those same tens of thousands are two tweets she put out last night saying:

1. I never said or implied that the alleged “stalker” was behind the tweet

2. I never once speculated about the alleged hacking.

Say WHAT? This is Bill Clinton grade: “it depends on the meaning of the what the word ‘is’ is” style.

It would seem to me the statement’s purpose was not to deal with unanswered questions but to get the “I’m being harassed by the right” theme out so the left can follow-up with nonsense like this from Joan Walsh:

It’s about @AndrewBreitbart and insane bloggers savaging a 21 year old girl.

Apparently the media not able to contain the story has decided their narrative is going to be about evil right wingers harassing a poor innocent 21-year-old journalism student.

PLEASE!

This narrative is designed to do one thing: to take the spotlight off of the suddenly silent Anthony Weiner and to avoid asking Ms. Cordova some specific questions such as:

1. Did you at any time send or relieve Direct Messages with Congressman Weiner via Twitter or any software used to access Twitter?

2. Did anyone from the Congressman’s office contact you at any time between the time the tweet became known and the release of your statement.

3. Did you exchange direct messages with Tommy Christopher of Mediate before the release of your statement, and if so what was the nature of said messages?

4. Who if anyone aided in the drafting, editing and presentation of your prepared statement, was a lawyer consulted

Tell me Ms. Walsh would you consider those questions “savaging” anyone?

And incidentally, do you have any questions for the congressman as Stacy McCain explains:

I think if you were keenly observant, you might have noticed something curious over the weekend: The normally loquacious @RepWeiner didn’t have a damned thing to say about this whole “hacking” incident, except a couple of vague jokes.

Does it not strike you as odd, Ms. Walsh, that the New York congressman — who has never been known to be averse to TV cameras — did not rush into a studio, or call a press conference, to rebut the accusation that he had Tweeted photos of his tumescence to a 21-year-old?

So the loquacious congressman says nothing, while his spokesman issues denials and, after 36 “anxiety-filled” hours, we get a confusing statement from the self-described “fan” of Weiner to whom the notorious photo was addressed.

There is something wrong with this story, Ms. Walsh. And what’s wrong has nothing to do with Andrew Breitbart.

Lee Stranahan follows up with two examples of simple questions that Joan Walsh has not asked:

1. Why did Rep. Weiner, who only follows 200 people, choose to follow 21 year old college student Gennette Cordova?

2. And how exactly did he come to follow her?

Ms. Walsh, may I point out that Andrew Breitbart was not following the young lady on Twitter but a certain congressman in a district 2900 miles from her was. I don’t claim to be a professional journalist but it would seem to me that any reporter whose goal is the truth of this matter rather than defending a congressman beloved by the left would be asking questions. Andrew Breitbart is not the story here no matter how much you or the Daily Kos crowd wish it to be so.

Meanwhile as paid reports cry “Breitbart” and unleash the dogs of indignation Ace of Spades contacted the alleged “harasser” who answered direct questions posed to him (I also contacted him asking to speak to him by phone last night, he choose not to speak by phone and I choose not to ask my questions via the net).

Have you been contacted by any law enforcement officers or agents whatsoever?

His answer:

No one. Nada. I keep saying bring it on. I have nothing to hide. Not my IP nothing to hide at all.

No one from law enforcement contacted Detective Colby Hall’s number one suspect in the hacking case of the decade? No one? No one at all?

Excuse Me?

Additionally the gentleman in question has offered to hand over anything an investigator might want concerning this. Ace again:

Isn’t it odd that Weiner and the Comely Coed are not calling the police, while the man the left has all-but-accused as being behind this is the only one who wants a police investigation?

It apparently isn’t odd if you are Joan Walsh or Colby Hall of Mediate. Apparently Ace has demonstrated reporting is one of those jobs American reporters don’t want to do .

Oh and Joan, Colby in case you missed it Bryan Preston notes another Coincidence that a reporter might choose to ask about

It was just a coincidence that Rep. Anthony Weiner had spent much of Friday on twitter (where he could tweet publicly as well as direct message, of course) laying in wait for a supposed Clarence Thomas docu-dump; and it was a coincidence that Weiner happened to see the allegedly criminal tweet, and was able to delete the tweet in question within minutes of it going off into the wild, even though he allegedly had nothing to do with sending that tweet in the first place. He’s a regular Twitter Batman.

Think about it; a “hack” of Congressman Weiner’s accounts DURING THE MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND that has the potential to damage his reputation takes place just as he just happens to be sitting there ready to delete the offending tweet and picture.

What a lucky guy!

Oh one last thing, take a look at this story from CBS. Here is the headline:

Rep. Weiner: I did not send Twitter crotch pic

Now a person seeing that headline would naturally assume that CBS asked Rep Weiner and he denied it. Unfortunately that’s not what the story says:
(CBS/AP)

NEW YORK — A lewd photograph of a crotch sent from the Twitter account of U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner is just “a distraction” perpetrated by a hacker, his spokesman said Sunday.

Dave Arnold told The Associated Press in an email that the tweet, directed at a woman, was “a distraction” from the married New York Democrat’s “important work representing his constituents.”

So it’s a distraction? I have a question:

Has anybody in the Media spoken directly to Congressman Weiner on the record concerning this matter?

The most interesting part of this story is going to be the MSM spin, but at least they can use it as an excuse to ignore Sarah Palin.

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