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« on: April 26, 2019, 02:58:17 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 4-26-2019
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest
Apr. 26, 2019
https://patriotpost.us/digests/62639-mid-day-digest
THE FOUNDATION
“We are, heart and soul, friends to the freedom of the press. It is however, the prostituted companion of liberty, and somehow or other, we know not how, its efficient auxiliary. It follows the substance like its shade; but while a man walks erect, he may observe that his shadow is almost always in the dirt. It corrupts, it deceives, it inflames. It strips virtue of her honors, and lends to faction its wildfire and its poisoned arms, and in the end is its own enemy and the usurper’s ally.” —Fisher Ames (1807)
https://patriotpost.us/fqd/62637-founders-quote-daily
IN TODAY’S EDITION
Leftmedia: “Mueller report vindicated our reporting.” No it didn’t.1
NRA sues LA over First Amendment violations.2
Daily Features: More Analysis3, Columnists4, Headlines5, Opinion in Brief6, Short Cuts7, Memes8, and Cartoons9.
IN BRIEF
Fake News About Fake News10
“The Press Didn’t Just Report Accurately on Trump-Russia Corruption. It Prevented the Corruption From Being Worse.” So read a headline at Slate yesterday over a story in which the site’s “chief news blogger,” Ben Mathis-Lilley, argued that the Leftmedia basically got the collusion narrative right all along (though, notably, he used the word “corruption,” not “collusion”). As reporters discovered tidbits, he insisted, Donald Trump and his staff were forced to change course and not actually collude with Russia because of the accurate reporting.
But Mathis-Lilley and his colleagues at Slate are hardly the only ones claiming this absurd revisionist history. CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz claimed Robert Mueller’s report11 “really corroborated a lot of the good journalism that was done.”
The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake boasted, “The Mueller report was by and large an affirmation of the mainstream media’s investigative reporting. Almost all the big stories were confirmed in the report.”
And the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman insisted, “The report confirms a lot of the reporting by NYT, WaPo and others about the president’s actions, many of which he or his advisers denied in real time.”
While the Leftmedia’s own “fact-checkers” may award points for truth-telling in that some specific claims were indeed factual, from a strategic standpoint it’s hard to unpack how delusional these boasts are. So we’ll focus on just two overarching points.
First, the Leftmedia spent more than two years reporting that Trump had colluded with Russia, not that their reporting stopped him. These scribes may congratulate themselves, but their reporting didn’t even rise to the level of one of Hollywood’s films “based on a true story.” The entire collusion narrative was based on totally fabricated lies, as Mueller’s report made painfully clear. That a few reporters got some facts right while reporting fake news is irrelevant.
Second, a journalist’s job is not necessarily to prevent corruption, as the second part of Slate’s headline claims the media did. It’s true that preventing corruption may be a desired byproduct of good reporting in that no politician wants to get caught, but the idea that journalists should be activists is one of the main problems driving the bias in the media today. Journalism students are taught by leftist academics that they can “change the world,” and these young people then go out into journalism careers thinking their “progressive” mission is to fight everything on the Right. It’s putting it mildly to say that being blinded by partisan advocacy is not conducive to good journalism.
Speaking of blind squirrels, even Hillary Clinton alluded to this nut when she observed in her op-ed12 that “Watergate offers a better precedent” for going after Trump. Who brought Richard Nixon down? Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein — the idols for subsequent generations of Leftmedia activists.
We find ourselves agreeing with Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi, who argues13, “It’s shocking to see national media voices after the release of Robert Mueller’s report patting each other on the back, congratulating themselves for a three-year faceplant they must know will haunt the whole business for a long time.” Leftmedia activists learned nothing, and they’re celebrating themselves for it.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/62635-fake-news-about-fake-news
NRA Sues LA Over Free-Speech Violation14
The National Rifle Association filed a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles this week for a recent ordinance the city council unanimously passed. The ordinance, introduced by councilman Mitch O'Farrell, requires any city contractor to fully disclose any sponsorship of or contact with the NRA. O'Farrell, along with fellow anti-gun zealot Councilman Paul Krekorian, claimed that the law was needed to combat the NRA, which Krekorian described as “one of the most significant roadblocks to sensible gun safety reform at every level of government across the nation.”
NRA attorney Chuck Michel argued that “politicians are free to disagree with the NRA’s pro-freedom, firearm safety, and self-reliance message, but they aren’t free to censor it — as this would do when NRA supporters drop their NRA affiliations for fear of losing work from the city because they get put on a blacklist.” The lawsuit charges that the city’s anti-NRA ordinance is an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment’s protection of free speech and association as well as the 14th Amendment’s right to equal protection under the law.
Speaking of the NRA, its annual convention is currently underway in Indianapolis, where President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are scheduled to speak today. This will be the third consecutive year Trump has addressed the assembly. The executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, Chris Cox, welcomed the president and his support, stating, “Donald Trump is the most enthusiastic supporter of the Second Amendment to occupy the Oval Office in our lifetimes. President Trump’s Supreme Court appointments ensure that the Second Amendment will be respected for generations to come. Our members are excited to hear him speak and thank him for his support for our Right to Keep and Bear Arms.”
https://patriotpost.us/articles/62634-nra-sues-la-over-free-speech-violation
ON OUR WEBSITE TODAY
Featured Analysis: How Are Corporations Paying No Taxes?15 — Some billion-dollar giants are paying $0, while small businesses pay out the nose.
NSA Metadata Collection May Be a Thing of the Past16 — The agency is now calling for an end to the PATRIOT Act’s Section 215 data program.
Hispanics Benefit From Trump Economy17 — Home ownership and income rates are increasing rapidly for Hispanics.
Grassroots Perspective: ‘And It’s All Free!’18 — Except that someone has to pay for it. Who do you think that will be?
Video: Why ‘Reparations’ Will Never Happen19 — Steven Crowder breaks down the logistical and moral problems of slavery reparations.
Video: Kamala Harris Dodges ‘All the Time’20 — Her repeated “we should have that conversation” answer earns even CNN’s ire.
TOP NEWS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
GDP ON SOLID FOOTING: “The U.S. economy grew at a solid 3.2% annual rate in the first three months of the year, a far better outcome than expected, overcoming a host of headwinds including global weakness, rising trade tensions and a partial government shutdown. The advance in the gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic health, marks an acceleration from a 2.2% gain in the previous October-December period, the Commerce Department reported Friday. … It was the strongest first quarter growth rate since 2015.” (ABC News22)
MORATORIUM ON OFFSHORE DRILLING: “The Trump administration is hitting pause on its ambitious and controversial plans to expand offshore drilling in the Atlantic. Newly confirmed Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said the agency has indefinitely sidelined its exploration of offshore drilling options as it grapples with a recent court order that blocks similar drilling in the Arctic.” (The Hill23)
GREEN NEW DUD: “A new study from the American Enterprise Institute questions whether the Green New Deal would have any real impact on climate change at all — leaving it little more than an effort to dismantle industry. The AEI report breaks down the GND into bite-sized policy proposals, assessing not simply the cost, but the proposed effectiveness of each legislative item to address the core goal of the GND: reducing American carbon emissions to a ‘net zero’ by 2050. The researchers’ ultimate conclusion? ‘It is not to be taken seriously.’” (The Daily Wire24) |
