RUTHFULLY YOURS

The mainstream media have so debased themselves that their attacks on a candidate can actually drive support to the target.  This has already happened among Republicans, only 15% of whom express trust in the media.  The astronomical levels of support for President Trump among Republicans is in part due to the unfairness of the unrelenting media attacks on him.  A similar phenomenon seems to be taking place among supporters of Bernie Sanders, who react to media attacks from establishmentarian outlets by embracing him even more fervently.  They are, after all, angry about what they see as unfairness and are suspicious of the powerful.  They still see the media as among the powers that be.  See, for example, this precious moment when a voter tells MSNBC that its criticism of Bernie turned her into a supporter:

Yesterday, the geniuses at the MSM added fuel to the public’s distrust with four — count them: four — false stories from major outlet.  Becket Adams of The Examiner has the story.  Read the whole thing to grasp the full extent of the incompetence (or is it dishonesty?), but here are the four:

One:

The New York Times’s Maggie Haberman, for example, tweeted the following falsehood at around 5:30 p.m. Monday evening: “Republican voter registration in NH is down roughly 20k voters from 2016 to now. It’s a reminder that Trump’s increased GOP popularity is in part because in some places, the GOP registration rolls have shrunk.”

This is not only false, but it has been debunked several times. At some point, repeating the lie becomes a choice.

Two:

MSNBC’s Katy Tur, who hosts a politics news show, sought to throw cold water on the strong economic numbers touted by the Trump White House, arguing that the economy is not working for the individual who spends up to 360 months paying off his car loan.

“When I ask people if they’re voting for Donald Trump, I hear about their 401(k)s a lot,” she said during a live broadcast from New Hampshire, “but there are those out there who don’t have a 401(k), and there are those out there who this economy is not really working for them.”

Tur added, “They might have a job, but it’s not a job that pays their bills. They can get a car, but it’s a loan that will take 30 years.”

Twitter video screen grab.

This is aggressively stupid.  Tur, obviously, has never bought a car. Three years used to be the standard for a car loan, but it is now five years.  Repossessing a ten-year-old car (with 70% of its balance still due) is not worth the effort.  With her high income, she sees families with average income as unable to pay their bills and doesn’t realize how incomes have climbed under President Trump and tax cuts have made them go farther.  But aggressive stupidity is a familiar habit of Tur, who just a few days ago expressed the opinion that the Senate could be flipped to the Dems via gerrymandering, oblivious to the basics of the Constitution.

Three:

No chronicle of fake news would be complete without an appearance from CNN.

CNN’s Cristina Alesci warned viewers to be wary of recently surfaced audio of 2020 Democratic candidate Mike Bloomberg proudly promoting the stop-and-frisk policies he championed as mayor of New York City. After all, the CNN reporter claimed, as we don’t have the full audio of the former mayor’s remarks, we don’t have the full context. But this is not true. The full audio of Bloomberg’s comments has been available online since 2015.

“So, here’s the thing, important context here,” she said. “We don’t have the full tape.”

Alesci, who, by the way, is an alumna of the Bloomberg News empire, continued, “So, this is obviously snippets that have been released, the podcaster and the writer that released this sound is clearly a Bernie supporter, if you look at his twitter feed, he’s very anti-Bloomberg. He’s promoting a hashtag ‘#BloombergIsARacist.'”

A simple Google search brings up the full audio, which was posted shortly after Bloomberg delivered his address in 2015.

Four:

NBC News’s Heidi Przybyla. She shared a conspiracy theory at around 7:30 a.m. alleging that the Kremlin is responsible for making the hashtag “#BloombergIsRacist” a top-trending news topic on social media. The hashtag, which is definitely organic, cropped up Tuesday morning following the release of the Bloomberg audio. Przybyla later deleted her tweet promoting the conspiracy theory, which she had not even bothered to double-check.

Keep it up, MSM.  You are becoming an involuntary asset for the GOP.