Tag Archives: Dan Rather

Sep 3 2020

FAKE News Has Been Around for Thousands of Years


Armstrong Economics Blog/Press

Re-Posted Sep 3, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

Many people claim that fake news is just something that Trump made up. They fail to realize that fake news has been a major political tool for thousands of years. The New York Times celebrated Joeseph Stalin as the future and cure for the Great Depression. Their top journalist Duranty even convinced Roosevelt to recognize Russia.

The press has always been a major tool to create revolutions. They were used by the Communists to pull off both the Russian and Chinese Revolutions. The Obama administration appears to have begun this decline in American journalism by not only selling Utopian Economics (Marxism) to the media, but they actively targeted journalists who they viewed as anti-Democratic. There is a pair of 2015 memos from the former Attorney General Eric Holder that reveal how the government used court orders under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to monitor the communications of journalists and news organizations. These memos have surfaced (the documents) but most of the press never made it a major story. Holder’s memos laid out the circumstances for processing FISA applications that target “known media entities” or “known members of the media.” You would think even the New York Times would be screaming – but as long as it applied to the non-liberal press, they were perfectly OK with that.

 

The New York Times journalist Walter Duranty on March 31, 1933, denounced reports of a famine. They were so pro-Communism for they saw Marxism as the way to a new future. It was Duranty who met with Roosevelt to convince him that Communism was working and to encourage his New Deal. The mainstream press in the 1930s were very much touting the Communists. They wanted to hear of Utopia and so reported only what they wanted to believe as they are doing once again.

Perhaps the greatest of all fake news reporters was none other than Cicero (104-43 BC). He was an Optimat and thus was against Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) who was a member of the Populares — the people rather than the Oligarchs. The leader of the Optimates was none other than Cato. It was Plutarch who reported that when a friend of Cicero remarked that the constellation of Lybra was due to rise next day, Cicero snapped – “Yes, by edict.” This is merely an example that the Optimates were constantly complaining about every reform Caesar would make. Because of the fake news of Cicero, even Shakespeare bought into it and painted Julius Caesar as a ruthless dictator. However, when Caesar crossed the Rubicon, the cities all cheered and opened their gates. The Optimates had no support of the people for they were exploiting the Republic since they were the Oligarchs. It was Cato who instigated the Civil War.

Cicero paid not just with his life, but they cut off his hands and nailed his head on the Rostra in the Forum Romanum according to the tradition. According to Cassius Dio, Marc Antony’s wife Fulvia took Cicero’s head, pulled out his tongue, and jabbed it repeatedly with her hairpin in an act of final revenge against Cicero’s power of speech.

 

Aug 30 2020

Beware of the “Fact Checkers”


Re-Posted from Just The Facts Daily By James D. Agresti August 27, 2020

We live in an age in which information is far more accessible than ever before. However, so is misinformation. How can we sort out one from other?

Well, some people who call themselves “fact checkers” claim to have the answer. They say, “Trust us.” But all-too-often, they fail to get even basic facts correct. Let’s look at three prime examples. See if you notice a common thread between them.

Snopes

Late during the Supreme Court nomination hearings for Brett Kavanaugh, several women accused him of sexual assault, and the media began publishing many “facts” about such crimes. These supposedly showed that only a tiny portion of sexual assault allegations are false, giving the clear message that Kavanaugh’s accusers are probably telling the truth.

That’s when a “fact checker” called Snopes stepped in and reported that “the most recent and credible research on this topic suggests that around 5% of rape or sexual assault allegations are false.” Snopes writer Alex Kasprak based this claim mainly on a meta-analysis of seven studies.

However, the meta-analysis doesn’t say this. Instead, it states that “at least 5%” of such accusation are “confirmed false reports” and “potentially many more false report cases” exist. In fact, the meta-analysis lists four different studies of “suspected” false allegations and “found false reporting rates above 40%.”

Surely, Snopes knows that the words “at least 5% and potentially many more” don’t mean “around 5%.”

If that wasn’t enough, the same Snopes article slanders Mississippi state senator Chris McDaniel by claiming that he said “99% of rape allegations from women are false.” McDaniel didn’t say that. He was speaking about accusations dredged up by the “American left” at politically opportune times many years after the alleged incidents occurred. He was not talking about all sex assault cases, and no competent, honest journalist could twist his words in the manner that Snopes did.

PolitiFact

Let’s examine another enlightening example.

In the final presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, Clinton said that “half of all” illegal immigrants in the U.S. “actually pay federal income tax.”

A Pulitzer Prize-winning fact check organization named PolitiFact looked into Clinton’s claim and reported: “While there is no official figure, experts estimate that about half of all undocumented workers pay federal income taxes, if not more.”

In reality, the polar opposite is true. Data from the IRS, the Social Security Administration, and the Congressional Budget Office show that roughly half of illegal immigrants file federal tax returns, but virtually none of them pay federal income taxes. Instead, they file these returns to claim refundable child tax credits, which give them cash welfare payments for every child they have.

Are we supposed to believe that PolitiFact doesn’t understand that “paying income taxes” is not the same as “filing tax returns to get welfare”?

Washington Post

Now let’s examine a fact checking operation embedded in a media outlet.

Well after Obamacare was signed into law, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that it would reduce the size of the U.S. workforce by about 2.3 million full-time workers. This was roughly three times larger than the previous estimate.

As this negative news spread, the Washington Post’s head fact checker, Glenn Kessler, put a positive spin on it by claiming that this decline in workers “initially would lead to higher wages as employers competed to hire people.”

In direct contradiction this, the same Congressional Budget Office report that Kessler cited says that the Affordable Care Act will cause “reductions in wages or other compensation.” Moreover, it explains that these wage reductions are among the main reasons why Obamacare will cause the workforce to decline. Since Obamacare cuts the money that people earn from working, less people will be willing to work.

Even a child can read a report that say “wages will decline” and know that it doesn’t mean “wages will rise.” Why can’t the Washington Post’s head fact checker or his editor do that?

This is same media outlet that ran a Super Bowl ad praising journalists for empowering the public, helping us make good decisions, and keeping us free.

Conclusion

These cases are all clear as a bell and inexcusable under basic standards of honesty. Worse still, when I brought these blatant falsehoods to the attention of these so-called fact checkers, not one of them made a correction.

So what’s the common thread here? They all mislead in ways that support progressive political agendas. This is not a coincidence. I’ve examined countless fact checks that are rife with deceit, and in nearly every case, it’s the same story: They mangle the truth in ways that advance leftist narratives.

Why would they do this? I can’t read their minds, but this can only boil down to two factors: incompetence and/or dishonesty.

Aug 5 2020

German Government Directing Press to Misrepresent the People


Armstrong Economics Blog/Germany

Re-Posted Aug 4, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

I cannot even say how many emails are coming in from Germany. This is 5 minutes time-lapse of the Berlin march against COVID Lockdowns. You can see these are NOT Nazis or right-wing nut jobs or extremists. The deliberate misrepresenting of what is taking place reveals that not only is the press engaging in fake news, they are deliberating acting as the press did to further the Russian Revolution. This was far too big of an event for the Press to try to downplay. Their entire credibility has now been lost.

Our reliable sources are all saying the same thing. They need these lockdowns and continued extended regulations of masks, social distancings all to prevent uprisings. The financial system is in serious crisis and this in part is causing the migration of capital. These lockdowns are now taking on covert purposes. While in the USA they are trying to overthrow Trump, outside of the USA they are trying to save Socialism. This is becoming very dramatic and the vast majority will lose a fortune because they refuse to look at what is taking place on a global coordinated basis.

We will update the Private Bog in more detail

Aug 5 2020

Propaganda War & the Fear Of Economic Panic After Covid Restrictions are Lifted


Armstrong Economics Blog/Germany

Re-Posted Aug 4, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

What is fascinating is the fact that it appears there are people who are deliberately posting fake photos of other events so claimed fact-checkers can label the event as a whole is fake to support the fake press. Here we have a photo which is obviously Zurich. It is so obvious that anyone who has traveled to Berlin and Zurich will instantly know the difference. This is not even credible showing a previous event in Berlin.

Now there are other sources coming out with real photos of Berlin and reporting that the media is fake. The politicians have blamed the police for not enforcing masks and social distancing. This entire thing of self-proclaimed fact-checkers and fake news is becoming just insane. It’s always to discredit that the people who are protesting against lockdowns and to discredit them in any way possible. We have entered a new age of propaganda. This is turning into a war to try to discourage people from protesting.

However, the decision to impose the lockdown again, according to reliable sources, is because to lift the COVID restrictions, people cannot pay debts and the financial crisis will hit. This is really crazy for they have to be lifted and then rents have to be paid and the entire nightmare of this exaggerated response will have to be faced. It is inevitable! Our sources are deeply concerned in Germany and believe these restrictions have unleashed massive damage which will not surface until the restrictions are lifted.

Aug 5 2020

Berlin & Fake News Backs Off


Armstrong Economics Blog/Germany

Re-Posted Aug 4, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT: Mr. Armstrong, You are very famous in Germany. Once you posted that the media falsely reported only 20,000 protesters, they were forced to retract saying perhaps there was a discrepancy. They did not like being put in the same class as American media. It takes someone outside of Germany to expose them. Please don’t forget about Germany.

Thank you

anonymously

REPLY: I will not. I have spent a lot of time in Germany. We have held our WEC conferences in Berlin and Frankfurt and of course, it was Germany that funded the movie the Forecaster.

Aug 5 2020

Berlin Protest – Against Fake News – This has Become a Global Contagion


Armstrong Economics Blog/Germany

Re-Posted Aug 4, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

 

Jul 1 2020

First Came Fox Polls Showing Trump As Trailing, Then Came Tucker Carlson’s Trump Drop-Out Fiction


Don’t buy into Fox News propaganda the same way you don’t buy into the propaganda and Fake News of MSNBC, CNN, and other “News” outlets

Judi McLeod image

Re-posted from the Canada Free Press By  —— Bio and Archives—June 29, 2020

First Came Fox Polls Showing Trump As Trailing, Then Came Tucker Carlson’s Trump Drop-Out FictionWishful thinking has become Fake News over at Fox News:

“A stretch of lackluster polling for President Trump has some Republican operatives nervous about the president’s reelection prospects in November – with some even floating the possibility for the first time that Trump could drop out if his poll numbers don’t rebound. (Fox News June 28, 2020)

“With some even floating the possibility for the first time that Trump could drop out if his poll numbers don’t rebound”?

The president’s poll numbers are not likely to rebound when it is Fox News running most recent polls.

That Trump will drop out of the presidential race—which is based on one or two ANONYMOUS GOP members—is nothing more than Fox News wishful thinking, run loosely on the mighty Power of Suggestion.

“It’s too early, but if the polls continue to worsen, you can see a scenario where he drops out,” one GOP operative who asked to remain anonymous told Fox News.” (Fox News)

“I’ve heard the talk but I doubt it’s true,” another said. “My bet is, he drops if he believes there’s no way to win.”

“Trump’s poll numbers in recent weeks have trended downward amid criticism over his administration’s handling of the coronavirus epidemic and the White House response to the protests and riots following the death of George Floyd in late May while in Minneapolis police custody.”

Few other networks have gone so far out of their way to make the public at large believe that there is no way for the president to win Election 2020 than Fox News, which rose to No. 1 on Cable News through identifying as “fair and balanced”.

Granddaddy of Fake News

Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh was spot-on when he told Fox, “This is the granddaddy of fake news.”

 “Everyone knows that media polling has always been wrong about President Trump – they undersample Republicans and don’t screen for likely voters – in order to set false narratives. It won’t work. There was similar fretting in 2016 and if it had been accurate, Hillary Clinton would be in the White House right now.” (Fox News)

Loaded with common sense,  most folk know that media polls are biased.  It’s easy for Trump supporters to see that the left have progressed from knocking the MAGA hat off their heads, to knocking them out; from verbally abusing them to doxxing their entire family.

So when the media comes calling for their voting intentions, knowing that they have their name, phone number and geographical location, who would they tell them they’re voting for?

Suspiciously coinciding with myriad Internet clickbait suggestions that host Tucker Carlson is in trouble at Fox News comes this bold Carlson assertion:

“President Trump may lose this election,” Fox News host Tucker Carlson tweeted, hours after the release of his network’s polls. (Fox News)

“Carlson’s tweet linked to a video from his Thursday night primetime program, as he kicked off his show warning that “not many people are saying it out loud on the right, but the fact is that President Trump could well lose this election. In fact, unless fundamental facts change soon, it could be tough for him to be re-elected.”

Carlson’s assertion that “not many people are saying it out loud on the right” is disingenuous because the truth is only two ANONYMOUS GOP members saying it, found a ready soap box on Fox News.

Meanwhile, don’t buy into Fox News propaganda the same way you don’t buy into the propaganda and Fake News of MSNBC, CNN, and other “News” outlets.

Wishful thinking and the spewing of hate notwithstanding, if the Democrats are stopped from forging though their “non-partisan” Mail-in-Vote, President Trump will win reelection by a landslide.

Jun 8 2020

Civil War inside Mainstream Newspapers


Armstrong Economics Blog/Press

Re-Posted Jun 8, 2020 by Martin Armstrong

There is a civil war inside the New York Times as is the case in just about every major newspaper. This war is emerging between the young journalists and the 40+ old-wing liberals who have lost their way and surrendered all ethics of what was once journalism. What has changed is that the classically liberal process has transformed from investigative objectivity to always criticizing in public any opposition which in itself requires that one holds certain opposite convictions which means any objectivity has been surrendered. The capacity of reason to determine right from wrong has become biased to one’s own side to prevail and what has been rejected is debate. The substance is never addressed, simply they attack the messenger. There is no evolution of thought or advancement for society through the historical give and take of argument.

Journalism has lost any degree of modesty about the likelihood of any comprehensive moral and political view triumphing so decisively that competing views vanish or shrink to the furthest margins of a free society. Indeed, journalism has become just personal propaganda. Once upon a time, journalism was a noble cause for it was about a practical and functional form of truth that may not be even absolute or philosophical, but it was the pursuit of the truths that impacted our society. It was once perhaps a lofty goal that began with the professional discipline of assembling and verifying facts as was the case with the legal and political professions.

But journalists, have succumbed to bias and no longer try to convey a fair and reliable account of their events. FAKE NEWS has simply become a platform for personal bias warranting no further investigation. Journalism has digressed to nothing more than standing on a soap-box at Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, London. Journalists are no longer transparent about sources or methods so audiences can make their own assessment of the information.

 Journalism’s first loyalty was to citizens not to Governments nor to their Editors

The larger truth, over time, will always emerge which only exposes the sad state of journalism when we so desperately need a trusted voice. As citizens have been turning more and more to news sources on the internet rather than TV or newspapers which seem to be the mainstay of the older generations. Back in 2008, 31% were relying on the internet. By 2013, 55% of Americans relied on TV news.

The Washington Post still displays its motto – Democracy Dies in Darkness. The refusal to simply report the news objectively is killing our Democracy as well as our freedom. This COVID nonsense is all about control. The fact that 100,000 people have died as a percent of the population is 0.0003%. The worst flu season in recent years was 2017-2018 where there were over 48.8 million illnesses, more than 22.7 million medical visits, 959,000 hospitalizations, and 79,400 deaths. We did not have social distancing, shut down all sports, plays, theme parks, and art theatre, nor did we destroy the economy. None of the mainstream press has even dared to question if what has taken place was an over-reaction.

As the generations shift, this election Joe Biden looks like he will not even last for a second term assuming he remembers his own name. This is the last hoorah for this generation of the ’60s. This is the same in the media. We are at a generational crossroads and what lies ahead is something far different than what the older generation expect.

May 29 2020

Zuckerberg Gets to Go After Competitor Twitter—on Fox


Meanwhile, as for President Trump’s executive order on social media bias, “Go get ‘em, Mr. President!”

Judi McLeod image

Re-Posted from the Canada Free Press By  —— Bio and Archives—May 29, 2020

Zuckerberg Gets to Go After Competitor Twitter—on Fox

Hypocritical Facebook weasel Mark Zuckerberg went after competitor Twitter today—and was handed the prime opportunity by no less than Fox News.

Imagine the CEO of the social media that bans conservative voices on Facebook having the gall to say that “private companies shouldn’t be the arbiter of truth”.

That’s exactly what Facebook has been doing all along out in the cyberspace world.

Facebook deserves the same treatment President Trump’s executive order on media bias will enforce on Twitter

On the same day that Zuck got himself on Fox News, Facebook just arrogantly announced that they have identified PragerUniversity as a fake news media outlet. (Prager Newsletter)

“And they will, therefore, restrict our reach to our own audience. Even people who have chosen to follow our page will be deliberately prevented from seeing our posts.”

Facebook deserves the same treatment President Trump’s executive order on media bias will enforce onTwitter.

Activist Social Media, coached by desperado Democrats and now providing digital personalities to progressives, is well on its way to make Election 2020 a total mail-in event.

The mail-in vote, headed up by Michelle Obama, is the only means left for the Impeachment-failed Democrats to take down a duly elected president who bypassed Barack Obama candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016.

“Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has called out Twitter for attaching a fact check to a tweet from President Trump, telling Fox News’ Dana Perino that privately-owned digital platforms should not act as the “arbiter of truth.” (Fox News, May 27, 2020)

This is the propaganda push Fox gave to the slippery-as-an-eel Facebook owner

“We have a different policy than, I think, Twitter on this,” Zuckerberg told “The Daily Briefing” in an interview scheduled to air in full on Thursday.”

The many thrown off Facebook for posting Conservative messages don’t just think—but know—otherwise, Zuck!

Why would Fox News give the Facebook CEO an interview the same day of the president’s social media executive order?

Mighty Fox NEVER gets Facebook-banned.

Meanwhile, this is the propaganda push Fox gave to the slippery-as-an-eel Facebook owner who pontificated:

“I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn’t be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online,” he added. “Private companies probably shouldn’t be, especially these platform companies, shouldn’t be in the position of doing that.” (Fox News)

“I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn’t be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online.”

“Zuckerberg made the comment after President Trump warned social media giants that the federal government could “strongly regulate” or “close them down” if they continue to “silence conservative voices.”

“I have to understand what they actually would intend to do,” Zuckerberg said in response to the president’s warning. “But in general, I think a government choosing to to censor a platform because they’re worried about censorship doesn’t exactly strike me as the the right reflex there.”

“Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey responded late Wednesday, saying: “We’ll continue to point out incorrect or disputed information about elections globally. And we will admit to and own any mistakes we make.

“This does not make us an ‘arbiter of truth’,” Dorsey continued. “Our intention is to connect the dots of conflicting statements and show the information in dispute so people can judge for themselves. More transparency from us is critical so folks can clearly see the why behind our actions.”

“On Tuesday, Twitter slapped a fact check notification on one of Trump’s tweets for the first time, cautioning users that despite the president’s claims about mail-in voting, “fact checkers” say there is “no evidence” that mail-in voting would increase fraud risks and that “experts say mail-in ballots are very rarely linked to voter fraud.

“Facebook has faced criticism in the past for failing to address controversial content on the platform, but it appears Zuckerberg has no plans to change company policy. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg expressed a similar sentiment during a 2017 CNBC interview, asserting that the tech giant does not intend “to be the publisher and we definitely don’t want to be the arbiter of the truth.”

“We don’t think that’s appropriate for us,” Sandberg said at the time.

“Facebook, and Google have been censoring and editorializing for years under the absurd pretext that they were just enforcing their own “community guidelines,” not weighing in on the merits of what their users were saying or embedding their own biases into the site’s rules. Who writes and enforces these community guidelines? People like Yoel Roth, Twitter’s Head of Site Integrity, whose anti-Trump tweets from 2016 and 2017 resurfaced recently. Roth called Trump and his officials “ACTUAL NAZIS,” compared Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to a “bag of farts,” and implied that Trump supporters are racists. (Federalist,  May 28, 2020)

“Twitter hasn’t just waded into politics in an overt way, it has exposed the fiction at the heart of what social media companies are: they’re not neutral platforms, they’re biased, and like their peer organizations in the mainstream media, they’re overwhelmingly biased against conservatives and in favor of progressives.

“If Twitter wants to start fact-checking everything that gets posted by influential people, fine. But there’s no way it can do so in an even-handed or fair manner, and no way it can continue to insist on Section 230 protection.

Meanwhile, as for President Trump’s executive order on social media bias, “Go get ‘em, Mr. President!”

May 29 2020

President Trump Signs Executive Order – Directing Efforts to Prevent On-Line Censorship – Video and XO


Posted originally on the Conservative Tree House on May 28, 2020 by 

This afternoon President Trump held a press availability in the oval office answering questions from the media as he signed an executive order [Available Here] directing the prevention of on-line censorship in social media platforms.

The president was joined by Attorney General Bill Barr, and both leaders delivered remarks and answered questions from the media. [Video Below, Transcript to Follow]

.

[Read Executive Order Here] – In the periphery of this executive action there are indications, and a widespread expectation, the DOJ is close to filing an antitrust lawsuit against Google Inc and their affiliated companies. There is a strong possibility the controlling ideology of ‘big tech’ is about to merge with legal action by the DOJ.

The DOJ action has not yet happened, but there are signals it is very close. There have been visible signals, subtle but visible, that the DOJ was/is about to move on a massive (the biggest in history) antitrust lawsuit against Google and all affiliates.

The issue will not necessarily surface as most would think; via a bias based on conservative -vs- leftist ideology in content manipulation; though those underlying aspects are a part of the larger underpinning we will soon see surface.

Antitrust lawsuits, writ large, are based on “prices”, “costs”, and net “financial” distortions caused by corporations not competing based on open commerce. “Antitrust” in it’s structural form is based on costs and the manipulation of prices.  Essentially, controlled commerce.

In the digital sphere the targeted firms have not opened themselves to liability based on ideology; but rather Google, all subsidiaries and alliances, have opened themselves to antitrust violations through the manipulation and control of financial benefit.

Demonitization of digital platform content providers, in combination with Google’s control of almost all ad revenue in the digital space, is what has opened the door for DOJ intervention based on antitrust laws.

This happens because the content being generated on these controlled platforms is being arbitrarily valued by the media company, not the free market. Devaluing certain content they are ideologically opposed to creates consumer distortions.

Underpinning that revenue control is the ideological nature of the content provider. However, for the purpose of antitrust lawsuits, that motive is irrelevant.

The methods, practices and purposeful control of value; through collusion of corporate interest specific to a planned and organized effort to control monetary benefit; is the part of their activity that is quantifiable, discoverable, easily provable, and ultimately unlawful.

The financial distortion of internet commerce is the crack in the Big Tech stranglehold that affords the DOJ the opportunity to step in.  Google (and all subsidiaries) will lose on the substance of their defense because ultimately their business practice has resulted in, and arguably they have engaged in, price fixing.

It will take time, but eventually they will settle; and there will likely be a massive financial settlement in addition to a negotiated Consent Decree. Within the CD terms, we may even see a break-up.

The antitrust action is only tangentially related to the current POTUS confrontation with Twitter and big tech social media based on ideological lines. However, it is easy to see how the two issues will merge.  The monetary distortions are based on ideology.

As soon as the DOJ takes action Silicon Valley will hold an even larger self-interest in the 2020 election outcome; and they will respond accordingly.

This is definitely worth watching…