RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2020-3-8-the-real-new-york-times-or-a-parody
DPS Note: 

Given that so many of you neither live in New York, nor even in America, I am nevertheless circulating this about the NY Times because it is widely read worldwide and because, even if you don’t read it, the news you do read and hear or see on television is quite often driven by the political agenda of what is considered the premier newspaper around. So do read this through. It may not pertain to any subject which interests you, but it is a widow into how the far left has captured our newsrooms and the distorted picture of reality which is then foisted on all of us.

You could find yourself asking that question about the pile of newsprint that resembles the New York Times more or less any day; but the rag with the New York Times banner on top that got delivered to me yesterday really leaves me scratching my head. Is this real, or did someone swipe the actual paper out of my mail slot early in the morning and substitute the parody edition? Judging from the physical item before me, I would go with parody. But then I discover that all of the dubious articles can be found on the nytimes.com website. Could the devious parodists have hacked the website as well?

Let’s consider first the section of the paper headed “New York.” A lot can go on in a city of almost 9 million people, and there are many pressing issues here in our City with important developments happening every day. A few examples of developing local issues include: recent criminal law reforms, including reforms of the bail system, and an associated spike in crime; exploding Medicaid spending; the results of recent tightening of the rent regulation system; the success (or failure) of government “affordable housing” initiatives; the City and State government budgets; and many, many more. Perhaps we can educate ourselves a little on some of these issues?

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/03/conan-political-pilgrim-our-time-bruce-bawer/

It all started with Jon Stewart, whose sixteen-year hosting stint on the Daily Show (1999-2015) marked a sea change from the Johnny Carson era, when late-night entertainment was pretty much free of drastic political slant (at least on the part of the hosts). Stewart’s show, sold as a comic take on the news, was in reality a nightly dose of blatant left-wing propaganda – and was, alarmingly, many young people’s main source of news. Taped interviews with conservatives and libertarians were routinely edited to make them look stupid. Alas, Stewart’s show, not Carson’s, became the template for every one of the current late-night talk shows on American broadcast TV.

One talk-show host who likes to think that he’s different from the rest of the herd is Conan O’Brien. In a recent Oxford Union appearance, he faulted other talk shows for being “all about politics” and for constantly attacking Trump, and declared that he, by contrast, tries to do “silly” and “crazy” comedy that won’t date after a day or two. Well, that sounded refreshing, so I decided to catch up on Conan’s work, which I hadn’t checked out in years. From the Oxford Union gig – which demonstrated that, twenty-seven years into his career as a talk-show host, Conan is still big with young people – I learned that in addition to his nightly TBS show and tons of show clips on YouTube, he has a podcast, plus Conan without Borders, a Netflix series (originally aired in prime time on TBS) on which he travels to various countries around the world.

Admittedly, Conan’s YouTube channel proved to contain some genuinely amusing bits – for example, take-offs on Northern Ireland’s first same-sex marriage and on the Scandinavian “hygge” craze. But the political bias is unmistakable. In a monologue posted on February 28, Conan mocked the fact that Mike Pence had been put in charge of combating the Coronavirus. When Conan does spoof Democrats, it’s for innocuous stuff, such as the presidential candidates talking on top of one another at the February 25 Charleston debate. A recent bit about Bernie Sanders zinged him not for his radical policy positions (au contraire) but because he’s a “grumpy old white guy.”

https://amgreatness.com/2020/03/03/donna-brazile-tells-rnc-chair-ronna-mcdaniel-to-go-to-hell-in-unhinged-rant-on-fox/

Former DNC Chair Donna Brazile exploded on Fox News Tuesday morning, accusing RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel of repeating Russian talking points and telling her to “go to hell!”

Brazile, a regular Fox News contributor, was on “America’s Newsroom” with Ed Henry and Sandra Smith to discuss the Super Tuesday elections, and was asked about comments McDaniel had made earlier in the day about the potential for a brokered convention on the Democrat side.

A brokered convention happens when no candidate has a majority of the delegates’ votes and the nomination is decided through a sketchy process of political horse trading.

Pundits of of all political persuasions have been speculating for weeks that Democrats may end up choosing their nominee out of a brokered convention.

McDaniel said that such a process would be “rigged against Bernie if those Super Delegates get their way on that second vote.”

Brazile was incensed.

“First of all, I want to talk to my Republican friends,” she said. “First of all, stay the hell out of our race. Stay the HELL out of our race!”

Brazile added heatedly that she gets “sick and tired” of listening to Republicans talking about the Democrats’ process, and then went on the offensive.

“First of all, they don’t have a process,” she charged, meaning the RNC. “They’re cancelling primaries. They have winner-take all. They don’t have the kind of Democracy that we see on the Democratic side.”

The longtime political strategist then dusted off the Democrats’ dog-eared RussiaGate playbook.

“And for people to use Russian talking points to sew division among Americans …. That is stupid!” she exclaimed. “So, Ronna, go to hell!”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/03/chris-matthews-retires-lloyd-billingsley/

“I’m retiring,” said Chris Matthews at the top of his show on Monday night. “This will be my last ‘Hardball.’” A younger generation was “ready to take the reins,” Matthews said, but it turned out there was more to it. The longtime MSNBC host, 74, had made some inappropriate comments on a woman’s appearance, and had come to realize that such things are “never okay.” That settled an issue that had been brewing for several days.

Last Saturday, MSNBC stars Rachel Maddow, Brian Williams, and Nicolle Wallace assembled to cover the South Carolina Democrat primary. Viewers wondered why Chris Matthews was not among them.

The night before, the Washington Examiner explained, GQ columnist Laura Bassett accused Matthews of “inappropriately flirting” with her four years ago. In the makeup chair, Matthews reportedly asked Bassett “why haven’t I fallen in love with you yet?” And another time he made comments about her red dress.

Bassett was uncertain if any of it amounted to illegal sexual misconduct but Matthews’ tiff with Elizabeth Warren over Michael Bloomberg’s conduct prompted Bassett to speak out. MSNBC duly yanked Matthews, who had been in hot water before.

“A female staffer was paid severance by NBC after accusing Chris Matthews of sexual harassment,” Erin Nyren noted in Variety back in 2017. Matthews had reportedly “made inappropriate comments and jokes about her in front of other people.” The unnamed woman departed the show, reportedly with a payment of $40,000. According to the story Matthews received a “formal reprimand,” but remained on the show. One of his favorite guests was Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/02/theres_a_very_good_reason_the_media_is_silent_about_the_milwaukee_mass_shooting.html

It’s not just because of coronavirus that the media is staying mum. The shooter doesn’t fit the Left’s preferred shooter narrative.

On Wednesday, an angry ex-employee got a gun, put a silencer on it, went to the MillersCoors facility where he had once worked, and shot five people to death before shooting himself. One would expect to have a barrage of news stories about America’s gun violence problem and the need to ban guns. After all, on Tuesday, before the shooting happened, the Democrat candidates were all over each other trying to explain why each would be more effective at destroying the Second Amendment. Instead, though, we got crickets.

The reason for the media’s silence became apparent when the media identified the shooter: 51-year-old Anthony Ferrill was black. This meant that the media couldn’t use its white supremacist narrative to justify grabbing guns.

The narrative broke down even further when social media posts revealed that Ferrill may well have been an Elizabeth Warren supporter, an assumption arising from the fact that his wife proudly posted a selfie of herself last year at an Elizabeth Warren rally:

On her various social media pages, which have now been deleted, Ferrill’s wife posted photos of her family and expressing liberal political views. In July 2019, Ferrill’s wife attended a speech by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren at South Division High School Gym in Milwaukee. Following the speech, Ferrill’s wife took a photo with the Massachusetts senator.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/02/abc-suspends-correspondent-david-wright-lloyd-billingsley/

ABC News has suspended correspondent David Wright, Valerie Richardson of the Washington Times reports, after a Project Veritas video caught him referring to President Trump as “this f–king president” and declaring himself a socialist.

The video, to be released today, was taken at a New Hampshire event on February 11. When asked if he is a socialist, Wright said, “Oh, yeah. More than that, I consider myself a socialist.” Wright added that “there should be national health insurance,” and “I’m totally fine with reining in corporations. I think there are too many billionaires, and I think there’s a wealth gap. That’s a problem.”

According to CNN, Wright had been suspended “to avoid possible appearance of bias,” and would be “reassigned away from political coverage when he returns.” ABC did not indicate when that would be, or how long Wright has been suspended.

“David Wright is an Emmy Award-winning ABC News correspondent who has traveled the world, covering major news events in the U.S. and overseas,” ABC explains. “His work can be seen on ‘World News Tonight, ‘Nightline,’ ‘Good Morning America’ and other ABC News platforms. Although based in New York, Wright travels frequently to Washington, D.C., to help out with the network’s coverage of the Trump White House.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/media-serves-up-comedy-in-effort-to-get-trump_3248010.html

I don’t believe that President Donald Trump has ever deployed the Twitteresque acronym “ROFLMAO” (rolling on the floor, laughing my ass off). But I know that he appreciates the sentiment because of something he said in February 2018.

At that time, at the apex of Robert Mueller’s Excellent Adventure, Trump observed that people were “laughing their asses off in Moscow” at the malevolent Keystone Cops antics of the Get Trump Brigade.

“If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption, and chaos within the U.S.,” the president observed, “then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.”

That was—and is—exactly right, as was his follow-on observation: “I never said Russia did not meddle in the election, I said ‘it may be Russia, or China or another country or group, or it may be a 400-pound genius sitting in bed and playing with his computer.’ The Russian ‘hoax’ was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia—it never did!”

Period. Full stop. End of story.

But not, of course, the end of the comedy.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/02/house_hunters_a_window_on_a_derelict_culture.html

Like many people, I’ve been watching House Hunters and its cousin House Hunters International on HGTV with considerable interest, though perhaps not for the usual reasons. I understand the charm the program has for its viewers: the pleasure of visiting houses and their locales, the ideas one may get for redecorating one’s own dwelling, the information about places one may wish to visit or move to, the guessing game regarding which of the inevitable three houses the purchasers will settle for, or simply abundant material for one’s fantasy life.

But I do wonder how many viewers realize that the whole business is largely a scripted hallucination which may even be hazardous to one’s future decisions if taken seriously. And as we will see in the ensuing, it partakes as well of a progressivist rage for leftist queer and gender politics.

To begin with, House Hunters et al. paint a scrubbed and prettified picture of the subject. I recall several episodes dealing with the lovely Greek island of Paros, featuring gorgeous, well-appointed villas replete with lavish amenities including ample showers and impressive fireplaces. I lived in Greece for several years and know the island well — well enough to know that, like most Aegean islands, it suffers from critical water shortages and an equally critical lack of firewood owing to centuries of forest denudation. Showers will be few and winters will be rheumatoid. And unwary buyers will be sucking lemons.

This is only one instance of the HGTV lie. Cabo San Lucas is another popular HGTV fable, focusing on gleaming condominiums and stunning views. The hagglers, cheats, swarms of importunate vendors, heavy traffic, sewage treatment problems and evidence of extortionate prices are left on the cutting-room floor. Caveat emptor.

Moreover, dialogue and character must rank the program at the lowest end of the entertainment industry scale. The dialogue is cloyingly banal with its ceaseless empty chatter, and the prospective buyers/renovators are generally among the most vapid and unattractive cast of characters one could ever hope to avoid.