What's Your Angle in Attacking Media For Not Saying Trump Lies?

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Sunday May 27, 2018 · 2:23 PM PDT

2018/05/27 · 14:23

There have been a few front-page diaries in the past few days which have attacked, with varying degrees of anger, the New York Times and other (primarily) newspapers because when they have broken news revealing the falsehoods being spewed by Trump and his minions, they’ve minced words. The publications have said the Trump stuff is not true, or is contradicted by other evidence. Sometimes they’ve even written that it’s unclear whether Trump or his apologist knew they were wrong when they said or wrote whatever it was.

These diarists here take great exception to the lack of the word ‘lie’ in the text of the articles. How can the ‘paper of record’ not call out Trump with the exact term we want to hear, they say. It’s an abdication of the charter of these publications not to use the words we like, they think.

Never mind that we wouldn’t have known these things if those (primarily) newspapers hadn’t expended all those resources to find them out, so that we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to attack them.

But in the end, what is the point of this kind of criticism? How does it help?

You are reading the New York Times...

rhutcheson

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Thursday January 18, 2018 · 1:50 PM PST

2018/01/18 · 13:50

News Newspapers Press Leeuwarder Courant

or the Washington Post, or Bloomberg, or Mother Jones, or Politico, CNN, MSNBC, CBS.

If you are reading diaries here, you are getting summaries, excepts, aggregations from the MSM. If you doubt that, look at the sources cited. If no sources are cited, follow the links provided in diaries here, front page or otherwise. You’ll find that the news you are reading has largely been developed at significant expense by those publications.

So, when you see readers’ comments like ‘I refuse to read the Times’ or see headlines like ‘Eye roll at the New York Times’, you’ll recognize the futility of going further into those people’s productions.

The Daily Kos Standard for Attribution

rhutcheson

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Tuesday November 21, 2017 · 5:07 AM PST

2017/11/21 · 05:07

Here’s a section of a front page entry from yesterday:

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Trump a f*cking moron, but check out national security adviser H.R. McMaster:

Here’s how the same story was reported by Patch.com:

National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster said in a private conversation that President Trump has the intelligence of a kindergartner, according to a BuzzFeed News report citing five anonymous sources familiar with the conversation.

Here’s the same as shown by Mediaite:

Weeks after that Rex Tillerson-“moron” controversy, McMaster is now the subject of a BuzzFeed report citing five sources saying he “trashed” President Trump:

And here it is in the Daily Caller:

National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster belittled President Donald Trump at a private dinner, according to a Monday report from BuzzFeed.

McMaster reportedly made the comments during a July dinner

The difference? Only the story in the Daily Kos does not explicitly attribute the news source, Buzzfeed, providing instead an unlabeled link. As far as I can tell, only one front-pager here regularly put the news source directly in the text, rather than making the reader to follow the link to identify the source.

I would like DKos writers to adopt the citation standards used by other sites. That practice gives readers a better idea about who’s developing news rather than just echoing the work of others. It might also encourage some to give the original source some support in the form of views and subscriptions.

Crony Capitalism in Action

rhutcheson

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Wednesday August 23, 2017 · 4:22 PM PDT

2017/08/23 · 16:22

Carl Icahn, corporate raider, helped the incoming Trump administration to select cabinet nominees, particularly succeeding when the Senate acquiesced in the case of now-EPA director Scott Pruit. In the process, while acting as an unpaid adviser to the President, Icahn might have made a killing by shorting EPA-mandated renewable energy credits which one of his oil companies had been buying. Whether this constituted a legal offense is uncertain.

The story is covered in the New Yorker magazine. I would suggest that anyone interested in supporting the professional journalism which is currently carrying the water for the Republic should read the article in its entirety, and support it, perhaps by subscribing, buying the current edition, checking it out in the local library, or citing it on social media.

Don't Trade A Military Alliance With Israel for the Iran Nuclear Deal

rhutcheson

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Wednesday September 09, 2015 · 3:16 PM PDT

2015/09/09 · 15:16

I just saw Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Ct) address the Senate on the Iran deal.

He supports the deal on conditions that include committing to use of u>all means to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and becoming a full partner to Israel's military, including shared training and weapons systems without exception.

While I'm glad for his support for the Iran deal, I'm very unhappy about his and others' attempts to make this the occasion for the establishment of a more or less formal, blanket guarantee of U.S. active intervention in favor of Israel given a military situation which Israeli leaders might declare a serious threat to them.

Let's not cede to Israel that kind of power over U.S. foreign and military policy.

You Don't Get to Decide Yemen's Future

rhutcheson

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Friday March 27, 2015 · 12:33 PM PDT

2015/03/27 · 12:33

If you're like me, you know next to nothing about Yemen. You don't know its people or its history. Until fairly recently, you could barely find it on a map.

Maybe, though, you still have an opinion about what should be done there, and are considering what the U.S. should do about it. In fact, maybe you think that 'we' must do something! Maybe you think we have to participate with some countries in attacking the Houthis, or maybe just lay in the weeds while providing the Saudis with the weaponry.

Because otherwise Iran gains a proxy victory! And then what happens to Iraq? And wouldn't that mean that Hamas gets a boost? And then what about our crucial 'ally' in the area?

Because otherwise, we're passive! Not part of the solution! Abdicating our responsibility (as the arbiter of all such things)!

But then again, if you're like me, you've never been there, you've never met someone from there and you are no more prepared to anticipate and control outcomes there than you were in the case of the crusade against Saddam Hussein.

So if you're like me, you'll reject any suggestion that we need to do 'more' there and you'll condemn anyone in power who suggests otherwise. Because it's up to the people there to decide their future, not you.

This Speech Reminds Me Why I Worked For Obama

rhutcheson

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Friday March 20, 2015 · 1:56 PM PDT

2015/03/20 · 13:56

The President's speech at the City Club of Cleveland goes for the first 36 minutes of this CSPAN clip.

This is the kind of thing I wanted from him, and he's delivered domestically, although he's also given us a Palmer-esque Attorney General and an ambitious militaristic foreign policy.

Sign me up, Russ

rhutcheson

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Friday February 20, 2015 · 3:09 PM PST

2015/02/20 · 15:09

This is a potential bright spot for me: "Progressive favorite Russ Feingold moves closer to a comeback," especially the part describing the less than positive polling numbers of the Republican dolt who beat Feingold in the 2010 Tea Party wave.

rhutcheson

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Wednesday November 26, 2014 · 2:09 PM PST

2014/11/26 · 14:09

Our ambassador to the United Nations delivered an address on Wednesday in which she said:

I think there is too much of, ‘Oh, look, this is what intervention has wrought’ … one has to be careful about overdrawing lessons

But I think there's not too much but really too little of 'look what this intervention has wrought'. Indeed, Power and the rest of the current administration could use a strong dose of that kind of thinking. After all, we're still in Afghanistan and getting deeper into Iraq, wars which the administration has had 6 years to deal with. Then there's the outcome of the Libyan intervention and our involvement in Ukraine. And whatever we're planning for Russia and China.
Read More

My PR Letter From the White House

rhutcheson

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Thursday September 18, 2014 · 1:23 PM PDT

2014/09/18 · 13:23

I'm on the distribution for some White House public relations emails. Here's the outline of one I just received, based on President Obama's 9/17/14 address to service men and women at McGill Air Force Base, entitled "Five Things You Need To Know About ISIL":

1. ISIL is threatening America and our allies..
2. The U.S. continues to conduct targeted airstrikes against ISIL.
3. American forces that have been deployed to Iraq do not and will not have a combat mission.
4. This is not and will not be America's fight alone.
5. Congress should provide the authorities and resources the U.S. military needs to succeed.

I've highlighted the first of the five items, the one to which I most object. Read More

Here's an Example of Why Holder is Dangerous

rhutcheson

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Friday August 08, 2014 · 11:41 AM PDT

2014/08/08 · 11:41

As reported by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the

EFF is suing the NSA and other government agencies on behalf of AT&T customers to stop the illegal unconstitutional and ongoing dragnet surveillance of their communications and communications records.

What would be worse than the fact that Eric Holder's Justice Department is defending the case? This:

On June 6, the court held a long hearing in Jewel in a crowded, open courtroom, widely covered by the press. We were even on the local TV news on two stations. At the end, the Judge ordered both sides to request a transcript since he ordered us to do additional briefing. But when it was over, the government secretly, and surprisingly sought permission to “remove” classified information from the transcript, and even indicated that it wanted to do so secretly, so the public could never even know that they had done so.

And then:

The Court allowed the government a first look at the transcript and indicated that it was going to hold the government to a very high standard and would not allow the government to manufacture a misleading transcript by hiding the fact of any redactions. Ultimately, the government said that it had not revealed classified information at the hearing and removed its request. But the incident speaks volumes about the dangers of allowing the government free rein to claim secrecy in court proceedings and otherwise.

So the Justice Department wanted to edit the transcript secretly to protect classified information, but when the judge refused, the government found no classified information there.

This is just one example of why in my opinion Eric Holder is the worst AG in my lifetime. He should resign and President Obama should chart an entirely new course in this kind of thing.

If Not Warren, How About Biden?

rhutcheson

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Saturday July 26, 2014 · 11:17 AM PDT

2014/07/26 · 11:17

I've just read a great article, "The Biden Agenda: Reckoning with Ukraine and Iraq, and keeping an eye on 2016." by Evan Osnos in the July 28, 2014 New Yorker.

It suggests to me that failing Warren or someone like her, Joe Biden might be a 2016 primary advocate for the 99% and an alternative to the hawkishness of Hillary Clinton.

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