RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://victorhanson.com/american-pravda-part-one/

In communist countries, there were two levels of consciousness, two mindsets in other words. What all people mouthed publicly became the opposite of what most thought in private. When the private mind finally became all dominant, the entire system of the Soviet Union and communist Eastern Europe abruptly collapsed under the weight of its own lies.

The theme of George Orwell’s dystopic novel 1984 was that an abjectly cynical society that assumed what the government broadcasted and what was supposed to be orthodox were complete lies.

The truth was to be found only in whispered private conversations. Such mass schizophrenia resulted from the state’s desire and ability to hurt anyone who dared to tell the truth. But when the lies finally became too outrageous to pass off as true, and half the population no longer bothered to lie in public, the system either collapsed or turned murderous.

America is still ostensibly a free society. Or is it really—when the state, the media, and the elite establish rules of acceptable public discourse and expression, and they brand any opponents to their party lines as apostates to be canceled, doxed, shadow banned, and ostracized?

So, the problem is not just a weaponized FBI that pays off social media to ban unwelcome news, or government boards that brand as “hate” speech or “disinformation” what they find inconvenient. Nor are we dealing just with a corrupt Department of Justice that targets perceived opponents and exempts its supporters.

For example, does anyone believe that Donald Trump would face 91 indictments had he on January 7, 2021, just announced that he had no intention to run again for president? Would Elon Musk be facing possible federal suits had he promised to keep “speech moderators” on Twitter and announced that he was a diehard Biden supporter? Would Hunter Biden have been able to shake down foreign oligarchs and governments with impunity all these years were his father not a leftwing vice president and then a likely candidate for president and now commander in chief?

Still, the real culprit for our empire of lies is the culture of our bicoastal elite that uses its influence, wealth, political clout, social media, and the administrative state to create virtual realities that have nothing to do with the real world, but instead reflect the ridiculous utopian agendas of those who have enough money and clout to avoid the baleful concrete consequences of their ideologies.

https://themessenger.com/opinion/accessory-reporters-media-biden-allegations-hunter-biden-laptop

For some in the media, no allegation that might link President Joe Biden to unethical or even criminal behavior seems to be considered credible or worth investigating. Times have certainly changed. I remember when any hint of impropriety involving the White House administrations of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and, most especially, Donald Trump would catapult journalists into action, seeking to discover whether any of the suggested improprieties could be connected to those presidents.

I had no problem with that. In fact, I strongly support the practice because that is the role of journalists, especially investigative reporters: follow the facts to the truth, no matter the reporter’s personal feelings or biases they may harbor toward an individual or entity under investigation.

Many people believe that the ethical and professional conduct of some journalists and news organizations went out the window with the dawning of the Age of Trump. Soon after the New York City businessman declared his intention to seek the presidency in June 2015, many journalists began to openly declare their disdain, even hatred, for him.

Then, during the 2020 election, with seemingly little or no investigation, a report about the content found on Hunter Biden’s laptop was categorically labeled “Russian disinformation” by much of the mainstream media, with a large assist from more than 50 former U.S. intelligence officials, the Biden White House, and President Biden himself, who vigorously answered “Yes, yes, yes,” when asked if he believed the laptop contained Russian disinformation.

Case closed, apparently. No need for those in the media to do their jobs.  

Except, of course, the Russian disinformation label turned out to be untrue. Many liberal-leaning news organizations were forced to grudgingly acknowledge that the Hunter Biden laptop story was not Russian disinformation, and might have tentacles leading beyond Hunter Biden.

Now, we have another story involving Hunter Biden — that he allegedly received $260,000 from Chinese business interests during his father’s presidential campaign, with Joe Biden’s address on the wire transfer.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/propublica-buries-its-clarence-thomas-news-media-bias-political-ethics-de06903d?mod=opinion_lead_pos10

Justice Clarence Thomas has been attending private events with fierce critics of Donald Trump. That’s the only real news in the latest hit piece from ProPublica, which describes itself “an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force.” But you have to read between the lines to find it.

The outlet obtained a photograph of Justice Thomas with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. It said Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, was at an event Justice Thomas attended. It presents photographic evidence of that too, though it doesn’t note Mr. Bloomberg’s presence in the caption. And it said Justice Thomas had attended a 2018 event of Stand Together, a network founded by libertarian businessman Charles Koch.

What ProPublica doesn’t say in its 4,500-word piece is that Mr. Burns has described Mr. Trump as “Hitleresque” and “the greatest threat to American democracy since the Second World War.” It doesn’t say that Mr. Bloomberg has called Mr. Trump a “carnival barking clown” and sought the nomination to challenge him in 2020. It doesn’t say that the Koch network is reportedly spending tens of millions to defeat Mr. Trump in 2024.

Why leave all that out? Because ProPublica wants you to think Justice Thomas is in the tank for Mr. Trump. In April it complained: “Thomas’ approach to ethics has already attracted public attention. Last year, Thomas didn’t recuse himself from cases that touched on the involvement of his wife, Ginni, in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.”

The site misleads its readers by omitting the anti-Trump material from its latest attack on Justice Thomas. Mr. Burns is identified as someone “whose films Koch has financially supported.” The Koch network is described as having “spent over $65 million supporting Republican candidates in the last election cycle.” The piece omits Mr. Bloomberg’s liberal views on the environment but mentions that at California’s Bohemian Grove with him and Justice Thomas was the author Bjorn Lomborg, who “has for years argued the threat of global warming is overstated.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/his-magazine-claimed-cancel-culture-is-good-then-he-got-cancelled/

The surviving Baby Boomer counterculture heroes are either keeping very quiet or having brief outbursts while noting that the country has gone insane… before issuing scripted apologies pleading for everyone to forgive them for noticing that the country has gone insane.

Now the time has come for Jan Wenner, the Rolling Stone co-founder that people last paid attention to in the 1980s back before the magazine had come to consist of 90% Trump rants and 10% interviews with elderly celebrity pals. And so matters would have remained if Wenner, his ego so bloated that he doesn’t seem to have noticed the cultural weather outside, decided to freely spout off.

In the interview, he spoke about his decision to not include interviews with women and black artists, and his remarks on the topic were widely criticized.

“The people had to meet a couple criteria, but it was just kind of my personal interest and love of them,” he said, adding “Insofar as the women, just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level.”

He continued, “Stevie Wonder, genius, right? I suppose when you use a word as broad as ‘masters,’ the fault is using that word. Maybe Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they just didn’t articulate at that level.”

“For public relations sake, maybe I should have gone and found one black and one woman artist to include here that didn’t measure up to that same historical standard, just to avert this kind of criticism,” he told the outlet. “Maybe I’m old-fashioned and I don’t give a (expletive) or whatever.”

It turns out that he does give an expletive after issuing an apology and being kicked off the board for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Earlier this year, Rolling Stone published an article titled, “Why Cancel Culture Is Good for Democracy”.

Does Wenner still agree? Does he agree that, “Those who fear cancel culture may claim they fear suppression of speech, but it’s accountability that they want to avoid”?

https://christopherrufo.com/p/msnbcs-war-on-truth?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

The left-wing news network releases a deeply misleading documentary about the reforms at New College of Florida.

Earlier this week, MSNBC released a documentary about the reforms at New College of Florida titled The War on Woke. The film would more accurately be described as part of MSNBC’s ongoing war on truth. As a trustee of New College, I feel obligated to respond to three accusations in the film that are false and misleading.

First, MSNBC host Alex Wagner claims that New College has recruited a disproportionate number of student athletes, enticed them with generous scholarship offers, and, despite an all-out effort to build a new baseball team, “doesn’t have a baseball field for them to play on.” The intention of these claims is to discredit New College; it is also driven by the same spirit of resentment against men, athletes, and conservatives captured in a recent New York Times headline about the changes: “At College Targeted by DeSantis, Gender Studies Is Out, Jocks Are In.”

None of these charges holds merit. The proportion of student athletes at New College is in line with other liberal arts colleges. It is standard practice for athletic programs to use scholarships to recruit potential students. And the baseball field accusation is simply false: according to New College baseball coach Mariano Jimenez, the college has struck an agreement to use the fields at IMG Academy, a Division I-level athletic facility near the New College campus—a fact that Jimenez directly communicated to the MSNBC producers, who ignored it to advance their narrative.

Second, MSNBC would like viewers to believe that academic life at New College is in chaos. Amy Reid, the gender studies professor whose program is being terminated, complained that “it’s going to be hard for the college to continue without the dedication and expertise and investment of time and energy of our tenured faculty members.” New College parent Tracy Ferro claimed that the school had no academic advisor for marine biology and “not one class for marine bio that was being offered” for her daughter.

These accusations also don’t square with the facts. Reid wants viewers to believe that New College was previously an academic utopia, but during her 28 years as a faculty member, the college’s standings plummeted across all metrics, leaving it as the lowest-performing public university in Florida. Yes, nearly 40 faculty members have departed, but this is a positive development: administrators can now recruit new faculty better suited to restoring the school’s classical liberal arts mission.