Did the media botch the Russia story? A conversation with Matt Taibbi.

https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2019/3/31/18286902/trump-mueller-report-russia-matt-taibbi

About 3 years ago CNN was my main go to source for news. Up till about that time CNN seemed to me to be fairly balanced. Then Trump elections came and the channel became as toxic, if not more, than Fox. I still can’t watch it and rarely read their articles as I find them heavily biased with too much opinion injected even in legitimate story.

I think this is a good discussion that could be had - did left wing media take it too far? Everyone on the left claims Fox is too biased, yet they seem to completely ignore heavy political bias in WP, CNN, New York Times and so on.
CNN definitely lost me as their reader and watcher. I don’t think I’m the only one.
I wonder if they’ll ever recover from this embarrassing fiasco with Trumps Russiagate.

What happened to real good journalism?

 

I find that Matt and I are pretty aligned here. Usually, I don't agree with his general political outlooks, but he seems entirely fair here. I find that refreshing. Clearly, that guy who interviewed him is generally reflecting the behavior and the smug BS so many of us have taken umbrage to. The unfortunate truth is that liberal media have entirely missed the point, and instead of being responsible about it, they have fomented the anger and rage that we now see spilling over in the streets. We've seen this before, it isn't unique to this country. But what is unique is that it happened here. For the first time, media chose to take an active side against the best interests of the nation. And that is unique, and it's dangerous. And Matt seems to be just as concerned about it as so many of us.

 

Profits and survival is what happened to good journalism.

The business model has shifted, print is on the way out, advertisers have shifted to the internet.

Attracting an audience requires headlines that grab attention. Content requires little more than confirmation bias to keep people coming back.

Add in the left's growing animosity towards freedom of speech, and a very dangerous path is being cleared.

 

From CNN's Dafna's calling on Yashir Ali on behalf of the DNC to spike a story to the immediate pivot based on what Pelosi said, it is obvious the CNN bias is overwhelmingly bad for journalism, at least their journalism.

Top MSNBC, NBC News Editor Accused of Trying to ‘Bully’ Reporter ‘On Behalf of the DNC’

 

Good journalism effectively died at the hands of Operation Mockingbird and the subsequent corporate takeover of the industry.

 

Was Michael Flynn in the employ of Russia and Turkey at the time he was selected and given the job of NSA by Trump-Pence???Did Papandopolis chance meet with an Australian ambassador in a London wine bar and spill his guts about tying up with Russians to get dirt on Hillary and help Trump in early 2016.Did the GOP alter the party platform at the convention to downplay Russia's involvement in the Ukraine??
Did Dirty Don Jr. Manafort and Kushner meet with an assorted band of Russian's in Trump Tower to discuss obtaining dirt on Hillary Clinton.
Did Dirty Donald on several occasions invoke the Russians to releaseWikileaks and other damaging information on the Hillary campaign.

 

Lol, we don't even know what the report says yet.

 

That didn't stop the leftist-media blatherheads from assuring us that the walls were closing in on the beginning of the end of Trump's tightening noose with spittle flying and eyes bulging for two years straight.

 

Well, between manafort and flynn, and popadopolous etc, the investigation was well well worth it. It was dumb to imagine that this one investigation was going to save the country, but it's just as dumb to act like any concern was unwarranted.

 

Another good piece from Rolling Stones:

https://www.rollingstone.com/politi...-russia-investigation-conclusions-813171/amp/

I think the way this thing was handled by mass media is beyond ridiculous!

 

Why is the Mueller report requiring a months worth of editing and redacting before it can be read????

 

How can you possibly ask that since it's been explained countless times? There are legal considerations that must be taken into account. It is not optional. How could you possibly be unaware of that at this point?

 

Lefties: We have to give Mueller all the time he needs to finish his report.
summary report made public...
Lefties: We need the whole, unredacted report NOW!!!!!

 

It's as if they are unaware of the very concept of hypocrisy; and yet so very many of them are such naturals at its practice. Oh well, I suppose all people have got their special talent.

 

They lack the dignity to be ashamed of themselves. Sanctimony is the only contest where in (D)'s are unwilling to accept the participation trophy, and declare it a victory ... ::

 

Yes the media dropped the ball in a BIG way. Here's what they failed to do;

1. They ignored all the evidence of years and years of mutual election interference by the CIA and the Kremlin. The CIA interfered over 70 times in the elections of other countries, yet this was only published in one single article... basically ignored.

2. They also ignored all the obvious reasons why Russia could dislike Hillary Clinton, the mess in Syria, Libya and her Soros connections... the man who singlehandedly funded rebellions and are responsible for the death and suffering of millions of people.... why should they not oppose her for this. Imagine electing more of these globally destructive policies as Potus.... but the media completely ignored this too, because Soros is also a source of their funding.... and therein lies the answer to their failings. They were merely doing what their sponsor required from them.

 

Guns didn't kill journalism...leftist and political correctness killed journalism.

 

Operation Mockingbird poisoned both left and right journalists.

 

Back when journalism was alive, you weren't able to tell if a journalist was either left or right politically.

 

Nowadays we select our Justices on the basis of their political beliefs, blowing the hell out of the concept of justice being blind.

 

Good post ! It is no secret that CNN is not news - #1 rule of journalism school being "thou shalt not editorialize" - but even in this they fail miserably.

Any respectable piece of journalism and/or editorial tries to give both sides of the story. This means presenting the best arguments from both sides. Not the worst arguments from the side one disagree with and the best from the side one agrees with. In many cases CNN does not even present the other side = "the sin of omission" . This sin is the equivalent of falsehood in the media. It is a deliberate attempt to deceive and/or misrepresent the truth.

Such sins are committed by CNN on a regular basis - especially when the story has anything to do with a "necessary illusion" or Establishment propaganda narrative.

For example - Mueller has a long demonstrable track record of violating the principles of justice, going after innocents and using nefarious and illegal tactics to get convictions. In one such case - the defendant was successful in suing the FBI for 5 million on the basis of Mueller's corrupt and nefarious actions. In another case it was 100 million. There are currently other cases against the FBI malicious activities.. some in which Mueller was involved - and hundreds which have not been brought to trial.

Mueller is a corrupt scum bucket - that he was put in the position he was is yet more evidence of how corrupt our system is. To give a clown like this - the special powers that he was given - says much about how broken our system is.

YET - CNN touted this guy as the pinnacle of "Integrity" and "Honesty". This is the "sin of omission" and failure to present the other side of the story on steroids. The claim that Mueller is some pinnacle of integrity and honesty is a complete and demonstrable falsehood.

Then you have the complete failure on the part of CNN - despite devoting 10 hrs a day over nearly 2 years to this topic - to have a significant discussion on the legitimacy of the process. Folks like Allan Dershowitz (a committed Dem who voted for Obama and Clinton) bringing up some of these issues. on Fox - but even Fox did not do this topic the justice that it deserved.

Sure Fox accused CNN - and correctly so - of all kinds of nefarious activities, propaganda and fake news. What Fox did not do is get into some of the more important issues with respect to problems with the system itself.

It is pure propaganda to claim that Russian facebook ads constituted some "grave threat to national security" - to claim that an ad featuring a pic of Bernie Sanders with the caption "The Clinton Foundation is a Problem" was 1) Propaganda and 2) "Harmed our electoral Process" - a claim that Chris Matthews was doubling down on just a few nights ago.

How is an ad that shows "The Truth" - Propaganda ? It is a fact that Bernie said what he said many times. Propaganda is presenting a falsehood.

More importantly - How does the voter knowing "The Truth" - about Hillary/DNC doing what they did to Sanders for example - Harm our electoral process ?

This is Orwellian doublespeak - where the Truth is cast as Propaganda .. and the voter knowing the Truth cast as "Harming" our electoral process. What's more - the voter knowing the Truth about some political candidate is presented as some "Grave Threat to National Security" !!!

The job of our MSM is to prop up the Establishment propaganda narrative. It is a propaganda arm of the state .. and this is just one example.

Russiagate was, and is now being used as a weapon against essential liberty - a weapon to implement censorship, a weapon against freedom of speech, freedom of information and freedom of the Press. It was used as a weapon against the right to privacy, to authorize arbitrary search and seizure.

The grave threat to "National Security" - as in the security of US citizens against having the safeguards which protect essential liberty removed - is not some Russian Facebook Ads - or the voter knowing the Truth about some political candidate.

The grave threat is those who are using "Russiagate" to take away essential liberty.

 

As a follow up, Matt Taibbi wrote this for Rolling Stone:

The Press Will Learn Nothing From the Russiagate Fiasco

 

That is the biggest failure of Mueller, basically turning law around from innocent until proven guilty (which Mueller did not prove guilt) to guilty until proven innocent. A sad state of affairs from a supposedly godly figure to the democrats.

 

The reason it does not exonerate him is that Meuller FROM THE BEGINNING could not indict a sitting president and he knew it. So he laid out his case and deferred to congress to decide if he's guilty of "high crimes and misdemeanors" thru the ONLY legal authority and means to judge a sitting president.

Sad for your dear leader, if he thought it was going to go away. Now he's obstructing justice by ordering his minions not to comply with duly constituted congressional subpoenas. He even thinks he can run to the supreme court for crying out loud. Seems he hasn't read that piece of paper he blabbed some oath to uphold.