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Sunday, Jan 21, 2018 - 16:57 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

And The Winners Are

The most-anticipated awards show in a long while has arrived, with Paul Krugman deservedly headlining it, for his entirely irresponsible assertion that "markets will never recover from TRUMP's election", published in no less than the New York Times. The dishonour roll then continues with a list of well-documented abuses by the chastised mainstream press, who have in response circled the wagons and termed the calling-out an assault on press freedoms... wait, what?

It should not escape discerning readers' attention, that the episodes celebrated in the Fakeys were indispituably false, i.e., fake. Fabricated. Fraudulent. Made up. Dishonestly presented. As such, the press had no real counter on that one. Instead, they went for the "press freedoms" diversionary counterattack, which if one sits down to think through, is completely off.

The modern consolidated press, it should be remembered, has become largely an engine for propaganda (see Herman & Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent - which I'm currently partway through - for more detail). POTUS publicizes FAKE NEWS reports: what does this have to do with press freedom?! Let's examine the L.A. Times' defence: "TRUMP is encouraging the violation of press freedoms around the globe... foreign despots have used it to dismiss unfavourable news stories. Libyan leaders followed his lead to discredit CNN International's reporting on the slave trade in their country."

Point One: since when have Putin and the CCP respected the American news establishment? It's not like the U.S. ever paid much heed to Pravda or the People's Daily either.

Point Two: it is noted that the press rebuttal isn't that they don't dish out FAKE NEWS, but rather that the POTUS and other distinguished personages should not expose their FAKE NEWS, because it could lead others to realise that they do report falsehoods. Somehow, I'm not very sympathetic here...


More real news you won't read about in the FAKE NEWS
(Source: r/the_donald)


Take the TRUMPIAN economy - that's a mighty big coincidence if it is one, and non-Krugman economists have finally capitulated as to the font of financial blessings: the GOD-EMPEROR's stably-genius policies. But no, you won't hear the usual commentators praising him for that, because he's not playing ball with them like previous complacent swamp dwellers. In the past, a Krugman could well coast blissedly on his lofty credentials despite being completely, utterly wrong; well, no longer.

Which brings us to Point Three: the mainstream press has wielded outsized influence with its first stab at forming impressions, a power that has likely not been adequately balanced. Such power has consequences. Consider a Fakey example by TIME magazine, on TRUMP removing a bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. from the Oval Office. Perhaps there were corrections made later, but the implications would have been applied (extremely unfairly, given that he's just proclaimed MLK Day), and harm done, by then.

We can note that the press has absolutely zero compunctions about maintaining their own list of TRUMP's alleged falsehoods, despite many of them being very contestable. Just for example, "So, look, when President Obama was there two weeks ago making a speech, very nice speech. Two people were shot and killed during his speech. You can't have that." - the NYT's rebuttal was that there were no gun homicide victims in Chicago that day. Erm, where did he talk about Chicago? And the very next line, "...How can you vet somebody when you don't know anything about them and you have no papers? How do you vet them? You can't." Sounds entirely reasonable to me...

The way I see it, the POTUS makes statements, the press critiques them, often with misleading framing. Now, the press makes statements, the POTUS critiques them, and the press are now crying foul like kiddies caught in a lie?

No, it's the same old, same old - the mainstream press wants to maintain their reputation and quasi-monopoly on trusted information, while being free to sculpt opinions, largely by calculated omission (which has probably engendered much sweating over at The State's Times, alongside authorities resorting to Committees of Public Truthies). Unfortunately, as it turns out, exposure to diverse sources of info - as the POTUS is encouraging - has consistently been the bane of weak dogma, and it certainly isn't stopping the common man - and fellow respected leaders - from seeing the essential truth within.



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