On the final day of 2019, a militia attacked the U.S. embassy in Baghdad in response to American forces killing scores of terrorists from Kataeb Hezbollah. President Donald Trump acted swiftly, deploying the Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Central Command (SPMAFTF-CR-CC) 19. It was a remarkable demonstration of how fast and strong the U.S. military can respond to a situation. That did not stop far-left MSNBC commentator Joy Reid from trying to compare the event to Benghazi, which was a boondoggle under the previous administration that left four American soldiers dead. This served as a reminder that 2019 was another terrible year for the mainstream media.
Trump to Exterminate Latinos? – MSNBC
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace sat down with USA Today columnist Raul Reyes to talk about immigration and compare policies between former President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump. They discussed the charged rhetoric coming out of the current administration, alluding to terms like “infestation” and “invasion.” Apparently, according to Wallace, President Trump is now “talking about exterminating Latinos.” She later apologized for these comments, but it was jaw-dropping to watch Wallace nonchalantly claim a president wants to exterminate millions of people.
Fredo Calls His Mom to Own Trump – CNN
David Holmes, an aide to acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor, testified that he overheard a phone call between U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland and President Trump. The president tweeted that he has great hearing, but he has never been able to overhear a conversation that was not on speakerphone. He encouraged everyone to do it, and CNN’s Chris Cuomo did an experiment live on air.
During an intermission of the public impeachment hearings, Cuomo called his mother and tried to determine if his mother could really hear him. It was a struggle for Cuomo. He then had to put it on speakerphone and turned it off again and could not hear his mother. It was embarrassing. Cuomo acknowledged that his stunt did not work.
8/8 is a Call to Neo-Nazis – MSNBC
Frank Figliuzzi, an MSNBC contributor and former FBI counterintelligence official, touted a conspiracy theory that President Trump was sending a secret message to neo-Nazis. How so? Trump ordered flags to be flown at half-mast on August 8 because of the mass shootings in El Paso, TX and Dayton, OH. He told Brian Williams in earnest that the date 8/8 is significant:
“The numbers eight eight are very significant in neo-Nazi and white supremacy movement. Why? Because the letter ‘H’ is the eighth letter of the alphabet, and to them, the numbers eight eight together stand for ‘Heil Hitler.’ So we’re going to be raising the flag back up at dusk on eight eight.
No one’s thinking about this, no one’s giving him the advice. Or he’s rejecting the advice.”
Are there any words to describe this? You decide.
Jeffrey Epstein Story Suppressed – ABC News
In November, James O’Keefe and Project Veritas released hot mic footage of ABC News’ Amy Robach revealing that the network suppressed a huge sex trafficking story involving Jeffrey Epstein in 2016. Robach stated that the Palace had “threatened us a million different ways” and executives did not want to lose access to members of the royal family. Why? Robach’s reportage included Prince Andrew. The clip highlighted why the people are losing trust in the fourth estate.
Don Lemon is Speechless – CNN
Don Lemon was recently at a loss for words when the president tweeted a Trump-Thanos meme. The clip, which members of the press described as “doctored,” featured Trump’s face on Thanos’ body and uttering the famous Avengers line “I am inevitable” before snapping his fingers and transitioning to a scene of Democrats being wiped away. Lemon called it a “stupid, juvenile meme game”:
“What are we, in junior high school? Like what the hell? What is this? Like what — what? I cannot believe that I’m even having to report this on the news.
This is crazy. This is literally crazy. Are you people insane? Are you insane? Go ahead, troll the Democrats on Twitter. Do this stupid, silly you-know-what. Play this stupid, juvenile meme game.”
Did Trump break Lemon?
Russian Oligarchs Co-Signed Trump Loans – MSNBC
Lawrence O’Donnell revealed to Rachel Maddow that he had a “single source closed to Deutsche Bank” who told him Trump’s loan documents show he has co-signers who are Russian oligarchs. Too good to be true, right? The look on Maddow’s face mirrored that of everyone else. Well, the next night, O’Donnell retracted the story and issued an apology to Trump. He even conceded that he “did not go through the rigorous verification and standards process here at MSNBC before repeating what I heard from my source.”
But this reckless abandon of standard journalism practices has been prevalent in the age of Trump, journalists choosing to depend on one anonymous source who heard an unverified bombshell from a second-hand source. This type of information is now acceptable in impeachment trials as well.
Syria Becomes Kentucky – ABC News
In a head-scratching moment, ABC News was caught trying to pass off video from a Kentucky gun range show as compelling combat footage of a Turkish attack on Kurdish forces in northern Syria. As Liberty Nation’s Joe Schaeffer noted at the time, the purpose of the reportage “was meant to support an ongoing ABC News narrative that President Trump has betrayed staunch US allies …” The network pulled the video and tweeted that it “regrets the error.”
But how could such a gross distortion happen in the first place? Schaeffer explains:
“… the video is obviously cropped to edit out any identifiable signs that it came from the gun show. Whether ABC did that itself or was deceived by a ‘source’ who supplied the edited video, the fact is a national television news network used an outrageously phony video to help frame a thoroughly biased narrative it was eager to pursue.”
Wait a minute. A mainstream media outlet trying to craft a narrative? That seems oddly familiar.
Misleading the Public with Headlines – MSM
LN’s Graham Noble recently came across something remarkable: A deceiving media – you don’t say!
The press had reported on the court-ordered release of redacted emails regarding the temporary freeze of U.S. financial assistance to Ukraine. Journalists had penned that the aid was frozen immediately following the July 25 phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. Indeed, it would turn out that the allegations made in the impeachment hearings were accurate. But what Noble discovered was that all the headlines were misleading, as a crucial point was buried where many people typically abandon the piece. What was this important fact that negates the headline? A hold was placed on the aid well before the Trump-Zelensky phone call.
He provided one example of this journalistic malfeasance:
“The opening paragraph of an NBC News article on the same subject claimed that ‘a request to withhold funds came less than two hours after President Donald Trump’s July phone call with the Ukrainian president…’ Five paragraphs further down, though: ‘The administration put a hold on critical defense aid for Ukraine as early as the week of July 18, one week before the phone call between Trump and Zelensky…’”
Ouch.
An Ocean of Fake News
When you comb through the myriad of examples of biased reporting, pearl-clutching pundits, and blatant fake news, it is understandable why just 41% of the country trusts the mass media. The left enjoys rebuking the Fox News Channel for its right-leaning slant. However, Fox is just a fish in an ocean of leftist bias from the alphabet soup of news networks. Is it impossible for the journalistic landscape to regain its credibility? Like the event horizon of a black hole, this is the point of no return. The media have been exposed as transcriptionists for the Democratic National Committee and glorified progressive activists with titles of correspondent, host, analyst, and contributor.
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Read more from Andrew Moran.
