Category: Hapless MSM

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NBC Execs Sat On Weinstein Sexual Assault Story

In case you missed it there was a very important story on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow show where Maddow took on her own network (NBC) for the way network executives blocked Ronan Farrow’s reporting on Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assaults.

According to Farrow, who was Maddow’s guest on the show, NBC President Noah Openheim issued direct orders several times that Farrow’s piece on Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assaults was not to be published. It was this stonewalling by NBC executives that led Farrow to leave NBC for New York Magazine which ended up breaking the Harvey Weinstein story earning him a Pulitzer prize.

Naturally, the fact that Farrow won a Pulitzer prize for a piece that NBC executives refused to publish has reignited the age old question of media manipulation by network executives. Specifically, the question is whether media houses run news items strictly based on their newsworthiness or do other factors like cronyism, politics, etc make network executives bury otherwise newsworthy stories? This is a debate that has been raging for a while now.

You’ll remember Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders got in hot water recently with some mainstream media types after he accused the Washington Post of not fairly covering his campaign because he routinely attacks its owner Jeff Bezos. Bernie Sanders essentially accused Washington Post of ignoring favorable coverage of him while highlighting news that cast him in negative light

Given this bombshell segment on Maddow that network executives do indeed bury certain stories, is it fair to say that Bernie Sanders was on to something with his criticism of the media? We now know for a fact that network executives do indeed bury certsin stories.

This story is especially important for those of us who have advocated and petitioned for quite some time now that the mainstream media take a serious look into Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s military discharge. This too appears to be a very newsworthy story that for whatever reason, network executives appear to have labelled “Do Not Publish”.

Bottom line folks, there’s always been suspicion among members of the public that a select few people exert undue influence on our media consumption. In an open society like ours, the public is best served when media executives make decisions to publish stories strictly based on newsworthiness. There is absolutely no excuse as to why NBC executives sat on the Weinstein story unless of course Weinstein pressured them to do so–a valid line of inquiry. There is also abzolutely no reason why 30-plus years into his tenure as a U.S. Senator, Americans should still be speculating on the reasons as to why Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was discharged from the military in 1967. The mainstream media could get this answer if they wanted to. The question is why don’t they? What media executive has told them not to look into it?

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The Obscene Trump-Fox News Relationship 2.0

A bombshell piece in The New Yorker says that in the Summer of 2017, Trump ordered his then Director of National Economic Council Gary Cohn to block the blockbuster merger between telecom giants AT&T and Time Warner. It was well known at that time that blocking the deal would benefit Fox News(Trump’s declared favorite news channel) while hurting CNN(his sworn enemy). Trump reportedly called Cohn and Chief of Staff Kelly into the Oval Office where he ordered Cohn to call the Justice Department and kill the merger

The author of the New Yorker piece Jane Mayer, told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, “The question is, has he[the President] been abusing his power to help his friend Rupert Murdoch, the mogul over at Fox, and to hurt his enemies, the people at CNN? This was an order from the President to his top economic adviser in the White House to block a deal, a very major multi billion dollar corporate deal and if they blocked the deal it was going to hurt CNN and it was going to help Fox. It seems like he is trying to punish his enemies and help his friends by using the U.S. Justice Department.”

The full Jane Mayer-Andrea Mitchell interview is available here but the relevant clip is below

Other startling revelations of the obscene Trump-Fox News relationship chronicled in Jane Mayer’s blockbuster piece include;

Fox News apparently knew about the Stormy Daniels story before the 2016 elections but then owner Rupert Murdoch ordered Fox News’ staff to kill it.(not to air it)

Remember the infamous Megyn Kelly clash with Trump during the first Republican presidential debate? Well according to Mayer, Fox News’ Roger Ailes(since deceased) tipped off Trump a day before that he was going to be asked a tough question by Kelly. This of course means Trump’s crude response to Kelly(“blood coming out of….everywhere”) may have been rehearsed. It may not have been a spur of the moment response like we all have assumed it was

To date Fox News has had 44 interviews with President Trump while all the other networks combined have had a total of about 10 with CNN getting zero.

The former President of Fox News, Bill Shine, is now Trump’s Communications Director

Bottom line folks, as Yours Truly argued in a previous post, time has come for some serious questions to be asked/answered about this obscene Trump-Fox News relationship. As Jane Mayer correctly sums it, “It raises questions that are troubling about our democracy when the number one rated cable news show appears many times to be an arm of the White House.” As we approach the 2020 elections, there needs to be bipartisan condemnation of this obscene Trump-Fox News relationship as it is antithetical to democratic norms. Simply put, any self-respecting democratic society can not have a major news network controlled by one candidate, especially as here, where that one candidate is already the President, equipped with the tremendous electoral advantages of incumbency.

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Melania’s Spox Says Trump’s Behavior Doesn’t Affect “Be Best” Campaign

In case you missed it, Melania Trump’s Spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham just did an interview on CNN where the host Christi Paul asked her about President Trump’s behavior vis-a-vis Melania’s “Be Best” campaign. Grisham gave one of the most ridiculous explanations I’ve ever heard on TV to which host Christi Paul shockingly never pushed back on/inquired further into.

CNN Host:How does she[Melania] balance her platform[“Be Best”] against some of the things that he[Trump] does?

Grisham: “I think that honestly one thing doesn’t have anything to do with the other, and she is focused on helping children. She has said many times that her husband is an adult, he is the President of the United States and he knows what he is doing, and she’s focused on “Be Best”, she’s focused on helping children, children are the ones who are impressionable right now and so she’s going to go out there and do the best that she can to help them succeed.”

The only way to interpret Stephanie Grisham’s explanation is that even though American children are impressionable, they never look up to the President of the United States, which as I said earlier is a totally bogus explanation that host Christi Paul should have vigorously pushed back on.

Bottom line Trump’s troubling behavior as President has serious ramifications up to and including its corrosive effect on our children. Where, as here, a mainstream media host gets an opportunity to raise that issue, it is only proper that they fully explore it–ask follow-up questions and push back when necessary. Even though Christi Paul is ordinarily a great host(among my CNN faves), she failed miserably on this Stephanie Grisham interview–sorry Christi.

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Board Member At CBS Drafted Kathy Griffin An Apology Letter To Trump



A bombshell revelation that an executive at CBS, one Arnold Kopelson drafted an apology letter for Kathy Griffin to send to Trump in order to save her media career has reignited the debate about Trump’s grip on the mainstream media.

After Trump’s upset victory in the 2016 elections, many liberals(fairly or unfairly) pinned the blame on the mainstream media which they accused of “creating Trump” with their constant coverage of his campaign rallies. Up until now however, the “creating Trump” accusation has been just that, an accusation(no concrete proof). This revelation however that a CBS executive asked Kathy Griffin to send an apology letter to Trump in order to save her career, certainly raises serious questions as to just how much grip Trump has on the mainstream media heads.

Many liberals, the loudest being Rosie O’Donnell, have lashed out at the mainstream media for what they perceive as an enabling, even abetting attitude towards Trump. Stories that would have made headline news and possibly even sunk previous administrations somehow never get the coverage they deserve. One such seriously under-reported story, which Yours Truly highlighted recently is Melania Trump’s Senior Adviser and personal friend Stephanie Wolkoff receiving $26 million from Trump’s inaugural funds. Under any other administration this would have been major “Breaking News” by all the major networks(CBS, ABC, NBC) but strangely, not so with the Trump administration.


Now that we have an executive at CBS who believes a Trump critic (Kathy Griffin) needs to send an apology letter to Trump in order to save her media career, serious questions need to be asked as to what else they(networks) are willing to do/or not do to placate Trump. Do they for example bury “bad” stories about Trump to make him happy? These are not hypothetical radical left-wing questions anymore and CBS needs to fully address them.

Bottom line there needs to be further discussion about this bombshell revelation that a CBS board member felt Kathy Griffin should send an apology letter to Trump in order to save her career. Mainstream media has a lot of “splainin” to do. The silver lining?–Yours Truly is slowly but surely filling the void created by the hapless mainstream media. What MSM refuses to cover, we most certainly will!!

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The Russians Hacked Kavanaugh’s Emails


Dem Senators have made a very compelling case in the ongoing Kavanaugh confirmation hearings as to why he is not fit for a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.


However there is a bombshell revelation out there that is yet to make the mainstream media rounds suggesting that a server containing Kavanaugh’s emails related to the U.S. Attorney scandal during George W. Bush’s administration was hacked by the Russians(see Jennifer Cohn’s thread below)


This has profound implications because in addition to the compelling case Senate Dems have already made against Kavanaugh’s confirmation, it now appears that he is also TrumpRussia-compromised–Russians have Kompromat on him.

It is no secret that the ongoing Mueller probe will likely raise legal issues (eg Trump subpoena) that the U.S. Supreme Court, possibly with Kavanaugh on the bench, will have to settle. One of the biggest complaints raised by Senate Dems against Kavanaugh is that there is an appearance that President Trump nominated him to the highest court for the express purpose of shielding the President in case the Mueller probe turns up evidence implicating him(Trump) in some criminal conduct—the so-called “Booker Theory” named after Senator Corey Booker(D-NJ). In other words, the conflict of interest envisioned by the Booker Theory relates to Kavanaugh protecting Trump as a return favor for his nomination.

The new bombshell revelation however that Kavanaugh’s own emails are in the hands of the Russians takes the conflict of interest questions to a whole new level. Because Russians are in possession of his emails, which may contain some damaging/compromising details, Kavanaugh may be inclined to quash the Mueller investigation not just for Trump’s sake but for himself too–a slam-dunk disqualifier for any Judge, let alone one about to be accorded a lifetime tenure at the nation’s highest court.

Bottom line given these new revelations that Kavanaugh’s emails are in the hands of the Russians, Dems must insist that he must recuse himself from any TrumpRussia issues or at least move to halt the confirmation hearings until the email issue is sorted out. How this bombshell revelation about Kavanaugh’s emails has not caught the attention of the mainstream media, Yours Truly will never understand. Hapless MSM folks, hapless indeed!!

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$26 Million Of Trump’s Inaugural Funds Was Paid To Melania’s Friend

Stephanie Wolkoff & Melania Trump

A recent plea deal by a GOP operative Sam Patten in the ongoing TrumpRussia investigation has brought renewed attention to the very questionable funds that flowed into Trump’s inauguration–a reported $107 million. Yours Truly recently wrote about this.



What Yours Truly failed to point out and has been brought to his attention is that part of these mysterious inauguration funds– a cool $26 million–went to a firm belonging to Melania Trump’s friend Stephanie Wolkoff for “event planning”. 


At the time of the $26 million payment, Stephanie Wolkoff was a Senior Adviser to First Lady Melania Trump, which by itself raises a whole host of ethical questions which you would think would attract a lot of mainstream media attention. Strangely it hasn’t.

Bottom line as we dig deeper into the mysterious $107 million that was pumped into Trump’s inauguration, we must also get to the bottom of the $26 million that was paid to Melania’s friend for “event planning”. This is such an exhorbitant expense that it fits the pattern often witnessed in money laundering cases.


It cannot also be left unsaid that the same mainstream media which hounded Hillary Clinton over the whitewater land deal is yet to ask Melania a single question about this mysterious $26 million that her friend got for “event planning”—the hapless MSM indeed!!

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The Obscene Trump-Fox News Relationship

Trump and Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo

When regular people encounter obscene images on the internet and elsewhere, the natural reaction is to recoil in dismay. Strangely however, America is witnessing daily an obscene relationship between President Trump and Fox News with seemingly no “recoiling in dismay” from politicians (especially Dems) or other sections of the mainstream media..

This lack of dismay/outrage at the obscene relationship between President Trump and Fox News leaves the wrong impression that this is okay/acceptable. Folks, this is not acceptable and Dems need to start screaming about it. There has to be a reasonable distance between the White House and a major U.S. news organization



Luckily Brian Stelter host of CNN’s Reliable Sources gets it and is beginning to call out this obscene relationship between Trump and Fox News. In this must-watch July 8 2018 segment, Seltzer details how Fox News and Trump are engaged in conduct no other U.S. administration has ever engaged in with a major news organization–the stuff of state run tv stations in foreign dictatorships.

Stelter for example talks about how Maria Bartiromo literally handed Trump talking points in what was supposed to be an interview. Or how Trump promotes Sean Hannity’s show to his twitter followers and gets regular advice from him(Hannity) on political matters. Or how Lou Dobbs calls into Oval Office meetings to give his opinions(wow). Or how Kimberly Guilfoyle is now dating Trump’s son yet still appears as a host on Fox News discussing the Trump family. Or how Jeanine Pirro asked Trump for a job at DOJ. Or how Trump at the suggestion of Sean Hannity is now bringing in Bill Shine, former Fox News executive into the White House as Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications. Folks, examples of this obscene Trump-Fox News relationship are endless.

By the way Bill Shine’s wife Darla is known to post very racist things on Twitter. She has since deleted her Twitter account but Mediaite captured some of them. This blatant racism by Darla would be enough for any other U.S. administration to pull the plug on Shine’s appointment but not the Trump administration.

According to Stelter both Trump and Fox News benefit from this obscene relationship–Trump getting regular “soft” interviews which are essentially public relations campaigns and in turn he pitches the various Fox News shows, books etc to his massive twitter audience. It’s a great arrangement from a business standpoint, but goes against everything U.S. journalism has stood for–holding those in power accountable. Maria Bartiromo and her cohorts at Fox News appear to have twisted this age old journalism principle to “using those in power for ratings and profit.”

Yours Truly was on this Fox News beat way before it was vogue but admittedly, never thought it would ever get this bad.

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Medicaid Expansion Key To Dems Winning State Houses

Folks Yours Truly readily admits that this week the Mainstream Media has done very well highlighting two issues that are very important to grassroots democrats across the country–voting machine security and the fight to save Medicare/Medicaid in the states


After bashing the Mainstream Media for weeks on end about their inexplicable silence regarding voting machine security in an election year, it was a pleasant surprise to see a report on Reuters addressing similar concerns. Hopefully MSM will continue reporting on this issue of great concern especially in Texas, where Dems are finally poised to make Historic electoral gains but are confronted with the sad reality of unverifiable voting machines in the Trump-Putin era. In years past fears about unverifiable voting machines would be shunned as conspiracy theorist talk. Grassroots Dems however are aware of just how real these fears are in the age of Trump and are desperate for more media coverage on this issue, not less.

Another big grassroots Dem story by the MSM this week was the Medicare expandion vote by the Virginia legislature that was largely pushed by the newly elected state Democrats. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow hosted one of the Virginia state Democrats, Danica Roem, who was instrumental in the Medicare expansion push


The Virginia case is a classic example of why Dems need to wage the Medicare/Medicaid war in the states. As Maddow pointed out in the segment, the Dem electoral sweep in Virginia was largely because they campaigned on restoring healthcare to a public that is increasingly witnessing GOP efforts to take away their healthcare. In other words Medicare/Medicaid is a winning issue for Dems in the states

As Yours Truly has repeatedly stated, the fight for Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security are very important to grassroots Dems and could reap huge harvests in state legislatures. Democrats could literally recapture a huge chunk of the state legislatures they have lost to the GOP in recent years if they campaign hard on the theme that Republicans are out to take away people’s Medicare/Medicaid.

To be clear, Yours Truly’s argument has been that the Koch Brothers/ALEC funded clamor for a Constitutional Convention(ConCon) by state GOP politicians is aimed ultimately at the elimination of Medicare/Medicaid because they are the biggest driver of the national debt.


There is a lot of proof out there supporting this argument but you’ll never hear that from the Mainstream Media probably because it is still considered a “radical” argument because its main pusher, Yours Truly is regarded by the MSM as a “radical leftist”. But the proof is staring the Mainstream Media in their faces if they cared to look. Consider for instance, Virginia GOP’s pushback argument to the Medicare expansion move by the Democrats. Virginia’s GOP Senate Majority Leader opposed the Medicare expansion move because it “abandons Virginia’s long-standing reputation for fiscal responsibility.”–the quintessential balanced budget amendment argument behind GOP’s Constitutional Convention effort.

Bottom line folks we still have a lot of pushing to do to get the Mainstream Media to talk about issues near and dear to grassroots Dems. However where, as here, they show a slight improvement we have to give them partial credit. The ideal situation(worthy of full credit) would be for Mainstream Media to “go there” and say boldly like Yours Truly that the ultimate goal of the Constitutional Convention push by state Republicans is the elimination of Medicare/Medicaid because they believe these programs are huge drivers of both the national and state government debt. Let us hope from now until midterms 2018 the Mainstream Media sticks with issues important to grassroots Dems like voting machine security and the NoConCon war as opposed to say, “c*unt” talk

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Same Mainstrean Media That Gave Us Trump Is About To Give GOP A Midterms 2018 Win

After the 2016 elections exposed how vulnerable our election systems were to cyberattacks, New Jersey, like many other U.S. states began mulling ways to improve the security of its election infrastructure. While still mulling what changes to make to their election systems, the Center for American Progress dropped a bombshell on the Garden state, giving it a lowly D-grade for its voting machine security.



Stung by the embarrassing D-grade evaluation, NJ state lawmakers felt compelled to do something, and they have. A new NJ bill A3991, the "New Jersey Secure Elections Act" seeks to do just that, replace the state's paperless voting system with one that leaves an auditable paper trail

As shocking as it sounds, even after Russian meddling in 2016, many states especially where the GOP controls the legislature still use electronic voting machines that cannot be credibly audited in case of disputed results. Texas is one such example.

While NJ should be commended for taking a concrete step forward in securing the vote, it is the shocking testimony of one of the state's leading Computer Scientists, Professor Andrew Appel that has caught Yours Truly's attention and should catch yours too.

In his testimony about voting machine security, Princeton University Computer Science Professor said paperless electronic voting machines are "fatally flawed technology." Turns out Professor Appel is so sure about his assertion he has even demonstrated how to hack a New Jersey voting machine.

Now if these were conclusory allegations by some random loud mouth in #TheResistance the lack of coverage by the Mainstream Media would be understandable. However given that this bombshell assertion is being made by a highly respected Ivy League scholar(Princeton is Super Ivy League) the lack of coverage by the Mainstream Media has to be called into question.

How can the world's leading democracy be conducting elections using "fatally flawed" voting machines and the Media remain relatively silent about it? To its credit Fox News did do a segment on Professor Appel. That however is not nearly enough Media coverage for such a consequential story--especially in an election year.

A charge has been levelled, and Yours Truly concurs, that it is the Mainstream Media that gave us Trump. If the same Mainstream Media cannot find a way to have this Ivy League professor explain his bombshell assertion to the public, a second charge could be levelled that the Mainstream Media is helping Trump's GOP steal Midterms 2018

There's absolutely no excuse as to why CNN or MSNBC cannot interview this esteemed Computer Scientist--none!!

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