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« on: March 05, 2018, 02:57:54 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 3-5-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest
Mar. 5, 2018 · https://patriotpost.us/digests/54537-mid-day-digest
IN TODAY’S EDITION
Jimmy Kimmel did address #MeToo during the Oscars, highlighting his hypocrisy.
Facebook’s fake fact-checkers “bust” a conservative Christian satire site.
It’s fun to mock Delta for its expensive virtue signal, but the bigger problem is cronyism.
Tech addiction is breeding an epidemic of narcissism in America.
What are “gun violence restraining orders,” and would they work to save lives?
More on DC schools, Putin’s nuclear threats and American strategic oil interests.
Plus our Daily Features: Top Headlines, Memes, Cartoons, Columnists and Short Cuts.
THE FOUNDATION
“We are either a United people, or we are not. If the former, let us, in all matters of general concern act as a nation, which have national objects to promote, and a national character to support. If we are not, let us no longer act a farce by pretending to it.” —George Washington (1785)
FEATURED ANALYSIS
The Academy Awards for Hypocrisy and Narcissism1
By Mark Alexander
The latest annual confab of self-congratulatory celebrities, the 90th Academy Awards, is over.
If you are reading this, you likely did not watch that self-aggrandizing parade of pomp and pretense from mostly mindless Hollywonks and have already seen headlines about who won which awards. There are still a few great movies being made, but some of the biggest “entertainment industry” grossers are devoted to the unmitigated violence2 saturating the minds of young people.
The centerpiece celebrity of the event was its host, Jimmy Kimmel, who, as I wrote last week, deserves an Oscar for “Serial Misogyny Based on a True Story3.” Kimmel is an unapologetic misogynist, but he gets a pass because he has established himself as the loudest of the elitist celebrity voices defaming grassroots Patriots4 and those who represent them5.
If not for Hollywood’s abject hypocrisy, Kimmel would not be hosting the Academy Awards — which is to say, he is the perfect host.
As I noted last week, given the recent report that 94% of Hollywood women report have been harassed6, Kimmel was asked if he would use his Oscars platform to take up the mantle of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements.
He fired back, “This show is not about reliving people’s sexual assaults. It’s an awards show. … And the last thing I want to do is ruin that for someone … by making it unpleasant. You know, that’s not what I want to do. I’m not going to stop any bad behavior with my jokes.”
In other words, Kimmel knows that if he focused too much on the #MeToo mantle, somebody might actually call him out for his sordid history of wholesale misogyny as creator of “The Man Show7,” where he spent four years building his career on the gross objectification and denigration of women prior to being picked up by Disney/ABC.
Though he regularly uses his “Jimmy Kimmel Live” monologues as a platform to promote leftist political causes, he has not devoted a single monologue to condemn the sexual harassment in Hollywood. Wonder why? He’s a hypocrite’s hypocrite — but Disney/ABC isn’t about to derail its advertising revenue gravy train.
Despite his assertion last week that he would not mention #MeToo, somebody tapped on his shoulder and let him know he had to mention it because it’s going to be a significant component of the Democrats’ midterm election strategy8.
According to the tabloid Washington Post headlines, between his attacks9 on President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, Kimmel’s “#MeToo Oscars monologue revealed a painful truth10.” But of course, not the truth about his own well-documented, unapologetic serial denigration of women.
Kimmel joked about #MeToo: “Oscar is the most beloved and respected man in Hollywood. And there’s a very good reason why. Just look at him. Keeps his hands where you can see them. Never said a rude word. And most importantly, no gotcha10 at all.”
He crassly offered this pun about the most noted of executive abusers in Hollywood, Harvey Weinstein11: “The academy, as you are no doubt aware, took action last year to expel Harvey Weinstein from their ranks. There were a lot of great nominees, but Harvey deserved it the most.” Apparently the other “great nominees” are now being more discreet with their harassment and abuse.
He took cheap shots at easy targets. “Here’s how clueless Hollywood is about women,” he said. “We made a movie called ‘What Women Want’ and it starred Mel Gibson.”
No, actually, here’s how clueless Hollywood is about women — they selected a serial misogynist to host their biggest celebrity confab of the year.
On a serious note, Kimmel declared, “We can’t let bad behavior slide anymore. The world is watching us. We need to set an example.”
The next “example” should be exiling Kimmel from his celebrity seat at Disney/ABC.
IN BRIEF
Facebook’s Fake Fact-Checkers Bust The Babylon Bee12
By Thomas Gallatin
One of our favorite satire sites, The Babylon Bee, recently ran a humorous story entitled “CNN purchases industrial-sized washing machine to spin news before publication13.” Hours later, Adam Ford, the Bee’s founder, received a notice from Facebook warning that his story had been flagged as false content by its “independent fact-checker” Snopes. Furthermore, the social media giant threatened, “Repeat offenders will see their distribution reduced and their ability to monetize and advertised removed.”
To say the least, Ford was surprised — not over being “fact-checked,” as this was not the first time that Snopes has “fact-checked” The Babylon Bee, but rather by the action taken by Facebook. Ford stated, “This is the first time Facebook has used that to threaten us with reduced reach and demonetization.” He added, “Also it seems that anyone who clicked on the article got a notice that it was ‘disputed.’”
Hours later, after suffering a fully deserved barrage of blowback and mockery, Facebook later admitted its action was a mistake: “There’s a difference between false news and satire. This was a mistake and should not have been rated false in our system. It’s since been corrected and won’t count against the domain in any way.”
Like Google’s YouTube14, Facebook has sought to censor and limit what it calls “fake news” and has increased its efforts since Donald Trump’s election. As part of its anti-fake news efforts, Facebook has teamed up with several leftist “fact-checking” groups15. One of these organizations, PolitiFact, explained its work with Facebook, stating, “Our partnership with Facebook is part of a push by the social media company to clean up its news feed and become a more trustworthy platform.” PolitiFact’s Aaron Sharackman added, “Facebook introduced a new tool after the 2016 campaign that allows users to mark a post as a ‘false news story,’ and if enough do, the post is sent to fact-checkers like PolitiFact, Snopes and Factcheck.org.”
Following his recent experience with Facebook, Ford opined, “There is no question in my mind that Snopes and Facebook are biased against conservative-leaning content. It’s clear that this is the case. There are always going to be some people who misinterpret satire, but we were intentional from the get-go about not blurring the line between satire and misinformation.” He then astutely observed, “When this exact thing happens to smaller sites, or to people who are unable to make sufficient noise about it when it happens, what can they do? The answer is nothing. They’re out of luck.”
Undeterred, on Friday the Bee published a satirical follow-up entitled “Facebook sends warm reminder to publishers that it is in complete control of their livelihood16,” although this may be an instance of reality reflecting satire. Finally, a parting question: Who’s fact-checking the “fact-checkers”?
It’s the Cronyism, Stupid17
By Nate Jackson
A funny thing happened on the way to Delta Air Lines showcasing its “woke” political activism — it lost $40 million to the state of Georgia, where its Atlanta hub is. Delta was one of the numerous companies that, in knee-jerk response to the Florida massacre, dumped partnerships with the NRA18. The shooting had nothing to do with the NRA, but grandstanding trumped common sense. As we noted at the time, Georgia Republicans responded almost immediately by refusing to restore Delta’s tax break.
Erick Erickson explains19, “Up until a couple of years ago, Delta had a special perk in the Georgia tax code. It was exempt from paying sales tax on aviation fuel. Other airlines had to pay the tax. Delta did not. When the state reassessed how it calculates and collects transportation taxes during the recession, Delta lost its perk. Delta has lobbied for it ever since.” And the air line won’t get it back. |
