Thanks go to Peggy for this find….
“Great article. The media is facilitating its own demise. I’ll highlight some of the content below, but worth reading it all.
Why the Media’s Trump Lie Machine is Failing:
“No one believes the media anymore.
Every five minutes the many mouths of the media broadcast, type, post and shriek that President Donald J. Trump is a liar. After months of this treatment, more voters find him truthful than them.
49% of voters believe that Trump and his people are telling the truth. Only 39% believe that the media is.
The media’s war on President Trump isn’t hurting him. It is destroying the media’s own credibility.
…..
The first time the New York Times called Trump a liar was during the election. Times editor Dean Baquet insisted that while Hillary Clinton might “obfuscate, exaggerate”, Trump was a liar. And when the Times printed lies about Trump, it too was no doubt merely obfuscating and exaggerating rather than lying.
The Times can’t call its own candidate who lied about landing “under sniper fire” in Bosnia, negotiating peace in Northern Ireland and being kept out of NASA and the Marine Corps by sexism, a liar. And yet it expects someone, anyone, to believe that calling Trump a liar is anything more than a partisan smear.
Before the first debate, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post and Politico all ran stories accusing Trump of being a liar. The coordinated attack failed to accomplish anything at all.
“Our president is a pathological liar. Say it. Write it. Never become inured to it,” Times columnist Charles Blow ranted in January. By February, the Times was reduced to writing explainers to explain why its lies weren’t working. “Why Nobody Cares the President Is Lying.”
The public had become inured to a partisan attack from a partisan press.
The more the media attacked Trump, the less effective those attacks became. To call anyone else a liar, you need to tell the truth. And truth requires objectivity. The media had discarded objectivity in pursuit of political goals, but still “identified” as objective. In the parlance of political correctness, you are what you “identify” as, but the real
world has never brought into this lie masquerading as a delusion.
Truth is not who you pretend to be. It’s who you are.
The media wanted the authority to determining who was lying without the responsibility of telling the truth. As the media made its partisan bias more obvious, it lost the credibility it needed. The more the media called President Trump a liar, the more the public believed that the media was lying.
……….
The media is doing more than ever. And it’s accomplishing less than ever.
Instead the media has become trapped in a cycle of impotence. The harder it attacks Trump, the more credibility it loses. And this makes its attacks on him even more spectacularly ineffective.
Its arrogance has become its own undoing.
……..
The billions of dollars in media infrastructure, printing presses, broadcast towers and licenses, are becoming more irrelevant every year. And the media’s credibility is becoming irrelevant even faster.
Without broadcasting infrastructure, the media’s reach depends on credibility. The majority of Democrats still believe the media. The vast majority of Republicans do not. The media is an echo chamber that reflects this partisan structure. And its echo doesn’t reach past the ranks of the left.
The media is baffled at the futility of its efforts against Trump. It still can’t conceive of a world in which it isn’t trusted or needed. But Americans already don’t trust the media. And they don’t need it either.
………
The existence of a professional class of men and women who write about events was a leftover from an era when communication speeds were rising, but distribution still required investing in infrastructure: whether it was a printing press or a broadcast tower. The internet makes distribution absurdly easy.
Even the old privileges of the press, like the press corps, can be easily stripped away from it, as the White House has demonstrated by expanding the press corps to include more conservative outlets.
The New York Times was once known as the paper of record because it set the agenda for smaller papers. As one editor declared, “We set the agenda for the country in that room.” But the Times doesn’t set the agenda anymore. The internet does.
……..
The media bemoans the collapse of its influence as a “post-truth world” filled with “Fake News” and “alternative facts”. But it was the media that destroyed its hegemony of credibility. After unveiling its “Fake News” smear, it quickly pulled it back again because it was all too easy for conservatives to use it to expose the flood of media lies.
A post-truth world rejects objectivity. The media imagines that its fact checks, which spin and editorialize shamelessly, put it on the side of truth. But truth is more than finding a factoid you can use to make a lie seem more plausible or a truth more unlikely. It’s intellectual honesty for its own sake.
The media believes that its left-wing goals are more important than objectivity or truth. But by abandoning the principles it claimed to live by, it destroyed its ability to achieve those goals.”
http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/265832/why-medias-trump-lie-machine-failing-daniel-greenfield
Excellent article Peggy.
The writer of this article did an excellent job of laying out why so many people no longer believe the media.
Trump won the election because he knew what was going on with the people across the country and smart enough to use the Electoral College rules to put him in the WH. He’s doing the same with the media. Obama had his pen and his phone to get what he wanted and Trump will go around the MSM to get his word out to the people if he has to.
A couple of liberal newscasters are waking up, but others are digging their heals in. One of them is from CBS. Forget his name since I never watch it.
Rush was on the Chris Wallace show yesterday morning. He made a very rare and exclusive appearance, worth seeing if you missed it. Wallace’s Democrat leaning bias really shows.
Limbaugh: ‘Media Did Not Make Donald Trump and They Can’t Destroy Him’ :
http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/02/19/rush-limbaugh-fox-news-sunday-chris-wallace-donald-trump-media
Further information on “fake news” – also known as LIES:
http://www.wnd.com/2017/02/phony-baloney-the-9-fakest-fake-news-checkers/
People say they distrust the “media,” but that includes both left-wing and right-wing media. When asked about specific sources, mainstream news agencies that Trump has attacked are rated much more trustworthy than Trump’s favored news sites like Breitbart and InfoWars. For example, much more people view CNN as either “credible” or “very credible” than those who see Trump as honest.
http://ijr.com/the-political-edit/2016/12/751024-americans-actually-do-trust-the-media-if-you-ask-them-about-specific-news-outlets/
Off topic, but of high interest.
Judicial Watch Presents Evidence of Voter Fraud:
Published on Feb 17, 2017
“President Trump’s calls to investigate voter fraud are focusing more attention on the issue. While some pundits claim there is no evidence of voter fraud… it appears there is a growing body of evidence to the contrary. One America’s John Hines has more from Washington.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzYewIhpM9I
Sorry, another off topic, but newsworthy article.
“SACRAMENTO — In a surprise move made in response to President Donald Trump’s push to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, two California lawmakers Friday introduced legislation to replace private medical insurance with a government health care system covering all 38 million Californians — including its undocumented residents.”
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/02/17/california-lawmakers-to-introduce-medicare-for-all-health-plan-on-friday/
Exposing the creators of Fake News.
How the Southern Poverty Law Center Faked an Islamophobia Crisis”
“The Fake News media repeats a fake group’s lies.
Look out! It’s another fake Islamophobia crisis.
“Huge Growth in Anti-Muslim Hate Groups During 2016: SPLC Report,” wails NBC News. “Watchdog: Number of anti-Muslim hate groups tripled since 2015,” FOX News bleats. ABC News vomits up this word salad. “Trump cited in report finding increase in US hate groups for 2nd year in a row.”
The SPLC stands for the Southern Poverty Law Center: an organization with slightly less credibility than Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Clown College, and without the academic degree in greasepaint.
And you won’t believe the shameless way the SPLC faked its latest Islamophobia crisis.
The Southern Poverty Law Center’s latest “hate group” sightings claims that the “number of anti-Muslim hate groups increased almost three-fold in 2016.”
That’s a lot of folds.
And there is both bad news and good news from its “Year in Hate and Extremism.”
First the good news. ”
Continued..
http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/265859/how-southern-poverty-law-center-faked-islamophobia-daniel-greenfield
Wow Peggy, what an indictment of the SPLC! Persons labeled “group,” a sign named as a group, insinuating membership that doesn’t exist, and chapters of an organization named as if they were separate organizations.
This is the kind of thing that people are really fed up with. it’s no wonder many of us have turned to alternative sources for information.
Good find.
The SPLC for decades has been a radical left-wing propaganda organization with zero credibility as far as I am concerned.
They are part of the radical activist left and as such a bunch of phonies.
Hope you’re doing better, Pie.
The major mainstream media has long been dominated by the left, liars of the left and Democrat party volunteer toads who have been at war with conservatives and Republicans for as long as I can remember. This war has been especially obvious with every Republican president from Nixon (who got what he deserved) to Trump. Back in the 60’s-80’s they at least tried to be covert about it. A culture of wink-wink, nod-nod, knowing smiles and galling denial. I refer here to ABC, CBS, NBC, New York Time, Los Angeles Times and the like.
One of my earliest memories was Walter Cronkite lying when reporting that the Tet offensive was a disastrous blow to the United States and South Vietnam when — in fact — the exact opposite was true. The communists not only lost decisively, they also lost their ability to wage war.
Ever since the advent of 24/7 cable news the left-wing MSM has pretty much dropped the covert aspect although the worst offenders still engage in pathetic, gut churning denials. Classical liberalism in mainstream journalism is completely dead or has defected to conservatism (as have many classical liberals of all professions have done.) Speaking of classical liberals, I doubt there is a single one left in the Democrat party which appears to consist of fat cat establishment elitists selling influence, radical left-wing lunatics and assorted Marxists and communists.
(Remember how Quentin Colgan used to claim that he was a “Classical Liberal?” If that guy was a classical liberal then Marx was a robber baron.)
So far what I really like about Trump is that he is in their face. The left-wing mainstream media has declared war on Trump and he doesn’t give a damn. He likes a fight and he is taking it to them — baiting them, toying with them, doing an end run around them and he is enjoying it. The guy thrives on being their target and firing back. Trump is not going to back down to these smarmy thugs and bullies them right back with the bully pulpit of the presidency. The more the media speciously tears him up with fake news, the more he gets right back in their face. Seriously, what is not to like?
Of course the hand-wringing left is going into paroxysms of hysterics and hyperbole. (No need to hand them a shovel.) Trump, they claim, is a threat to the freedom of the press and democracy! But it is not just the left-wing dominated mainstream, though they are the most agitated, other folks are a bit put off too.
Fox News’ Mike Wallace let his displeasure be known on Fox News Sunday, 2/19/2017. He is none too happy about Trump’s tweet “”The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!” Mr. Wallace (whom I believe is neither a left, right, liberal, nor conservative journalist, just an excellent one) thinks that this is an indictment of the press. I disagree. It is not a blanket indictment of the press, but it is a deserved and fair indictment of NYT, NBC, ABC, CBS and especially CNN. (Although I also agree with Karl Rove that the tweet was “over the top and unnecessary” and think President Trump needs to move on now. He can always revisit this theme later and needs to concentrate on his promises and agenda the next press conference.)
The left-wing mainstream “journalist” snowflakes who are at war with Trump (undeclared war for faux plausible deniability) are, naturally, horrified by Trump’s declaration that he’s at war with them. In any case, the notion that Trump is going to somehow abrogate freedom of the press, or desires to, is just so much horse pucky. Trump once stated that “I am a tremendous believer in freedom of the press.” That does not mean he will refrain from slapping the bitches back when they slap him.
For me Trump’s worst debacle is the “alternative facts” episode. That will never go away. Kellyanne Conway will never live that down and all it was all over what Spicer said about the inauguration which he later — and reasonably — clarified. My respect for Conway completely died over that. It was so foolish, bizarre and completely unnecessary. Spicer, chastising the press, stated that the ceremony had drawn the “largest audience to ever witness an inauguration – period – both in person and around the globe.” This likely true if not reasonably plausible but has been buried by Conway’s weird declaration.
OK, enough of this ramble. I highly recommend Post Scripts and their readership view Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, 2/19/2017. It contains an excellent rare visit from Rush Limbaugh (~ 16:15 mark) and Karl Rove’s commentary (~ 35:49) is excellent.
By the way, Wallace grills White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus for about 14 minutes. The show also spends a lot of time with commentators who chastise Trump. I have been watching Fox News for nearly a year now, and they are EXACTLY what they claim to be — Fair and Balanced. Fox News presents all points of view unlike the rest of the left-wing mainstream news sewer.
There is only one commentator I have found to be completely in the tank for Trump, and that is Sean Hannity. The notion that Fox News (which does lean conservative, there is no doubt about that) is a propaganda for the Republican party is sheer nonsense. Juvenile, half-baked, witless left-wing morons like Dewey and Libby who use Fox News as an insult, call it Faux News, or claim Fox News is in the tank for Republicans, you idiots do not know what you are talking about. Consider yourself already bitch-slapped. You are full of ****, and that includes Chris, if that despicable jerk still reads these pages.
I think Fox News used to be in the tank for the GOP, but Trump’s rise has forced many of the journalists to attempt to be more balanced. You’re right about both Chris Wallace, who is excellent, and Sean Hannity, who is just a propaganda mouthpiece. You’re also right about Conway and “alternative facts,” but to me that phrase captures the Trump administration as a whole. Trump keeps saying that he had the largest electoral victory since Reagan even though 3 out of the 4 past presidents had larger ones, and when called on this he said “That’s the information I was given.” Conway doesn’t care about facts because she’s paid not to care about facts. Spicer is just as bad, but it starts at the top with a president whose view of reality is shaped entirely by what makes him feel good.