Trump Unplugged & Trump Canceled

Two items for your consideration (and while I know this diary is quite a tome, I believe both are key issues):  First, Trump Unplugged

‘It’s not your job’: Debate sparked on ‘unbiased’ journalism after news broadcasters cut away from Trump’s election fraud speech’, 6 Nov, 2020, RT.com

“A fierce debate about the role of journalism has emerged on the internet, after multiple media outlets cut away from a live address in which US President Donald Trump leveled allegations of voter fraud.

In an unprecedented move, MSNBC, NBC News, CNBC, CBS News, ABC News, and even publicly funded NPR(Radio), cut their feed(s) from the White House as Trump began to speak about alleged voting irregularities during the 2020 contest. Among the major broadcasters, only Fox and CNN chose to air the full speech. A CNN chyron shown during his speech read: Without any evidence, Trump says he’s being cheated.

During his Thursday night address, Trump pointed at alleged “election interference from Big Media, Big Money and Big Tech,” and claimed that “we were winning in all the key locations by a lot” and that only later “our numbers started miraculously getting whittled away in secret.”

Outlets defended pulling the plug on Trump’s provocative remarks, arguing that they didn’t want to spread unsubstantiated claims about the election.

A few featured Tweets, two with videos:

@oliverdarcy  Nov 5
MSNBC immediately cuts off Trump when he moves to undermine the integrity of US election system. “Here we are again in the unusual position of not only interrupting the President of the United States but correcting the President of the United States’

The News with Shepard Smith  @thenewsoncnbc Nov 5

President Trump just spoke at the White House, as key states continue to count votes. Shep has the facts: “What the President of the United States is saying, in large part, is absolutely untrue.”

USA Today Deplatforms Trump’s Comments on Election as NPR and Other Outlets Censor President’, Nov. 6, 2020, newsla.com

“One news outlet, USA Today, not only cut Trump off but then also removed video of Trump’s remarks from all of their platforms–an extraordinary effort to censor the President of the United States more common in communist China.

Nicole Carroll, Editor in Chief of USA Today said, “President Trump, without evidence, claimed the presidential election was corrupt and fraudulent. @USATODAY stopped the livestream of his remarks early and has removed the video from all of our platforms. Our job is to spread truth — not unfounded conspiracies.”

 ‘US networks pull the plug on Trump’s live address due to ‘lies’; Several TV networks halted live coverage of Donald Trump’s address over concerns the US president was spreading disinformation, Nov. 6, 2020, aljazeera.com

These Tweets from @oliverdarcy (Senior media reporter at CNN) come with videos:

“On Fox News, anchors @BretBaier and @marthamaccallum pretty much repeat all of Trump’s baseless charges uncritically after his statement undermining the integrity of the US election.”

“What a sad night for the United States of America to hear their President say that,” @jaketapper says on CNN. “To falsely accuse people of trying to steal the election, to try to attack democracy that way with his feast of falsehoods. Lie after lie after lie.”

A few pithy rejoinders from @ajamubaraka on  Nov 8

“Folks, how does the privately owned capitalist press determine who is the “president elect”? Answer: the same way they will determine the president of Venezuela or any other nation where they are attempting to execute the agenda of the dominate wing of the capitalist oligarchy.

The blatant eradication of the theoretical lines between partisan editorializing & news reporting reveals the ideological role of capitalist press. That reality & the political censorship by democrat aligned tech companies is producing a nightmarish totalitarian dystopia.

“Folks is this supposed to be journalism? From the Clinton News Network (CNN) “Trump has not appeared in public after his grievance- and lie-filled news conference at the White House on Thursday.” This may be true but shouldn’t the public be the one to characterize his comments?

The real left is in more danger under the hegemony of the neoliberal totalitarians. Look at the level of censorship that has now become normalized. Big tech in alliance with democrat party are now the primary threats to liberal values like free speech & access to information.

Liberals & the left are drawing the wrong conclusions from the Trump vote. Also, people are talking about how the private media decides what information will be allowed to be disseminated, including the President of the U.S., no matter the content of his speeches.”

“I actually believe that liberals are more dangerously pathological than some of the Trump forces. Liberals are angrily suggesting that Trump & his supporters should surrender & accept defeat for the good of the country. You know, like how they did in 2016.”

.............................................................

Next: Trump Canceled.  Earlier I’d referred to it as Neo-McCarthyism, but one of my favorite socialists on Twitter called it: ‘Woke McCarthyism’.  Sadly, much of it’s also by way of Tweet, nigh on to impossible to cross-post, so I’ll offer the facsimiles with Tweet dates for you to check out.

Democrats, Never-Trumpers compiling ‘lists’ of Trump supporters in case ‘they try to deny complicity’ in future’, 7 Nov, 2020, RT.com

“Democrats and conservative critics of President Donald Trump have begun creating ‘blacklists’ of his staff and supporters, apparently hoping to shun them from polite society as divisions grow wider amid a contentious election.

As ballots continue to be tallied across several battleground states three days after Americans hit the polls to select their next president, knives are coming out among some of Trump’s detractors. A new initiative dubbed the “Trump Accountability Project” is compiling names of administration officials and the president’s high-profile supporters and donors, insisting “we must never forget those who helped further the Trump agenda.”

While the project doesn’t say how it will use its blacklist to ensure “accountability,” the registry has already swelled to hundreds of names, including dozens of sitting judges, and continues to grow as others in the anti-Trump orbit come around to the idea. The list was publicly viewable for a brief time, but was locked by its creators on Friday evening without explanation, evidently defeating its purpose altogether.

Among the project’s supporters is Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York), who called to document the “tweets, writings [and] photos” of “Trump sycophants” so that they can’t “deny their complicity with the current administration.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 6, 2020

The congresswoman soon prompted a response from Obama administration alum Michael Simon, a member of the Accountability Project team, who vowed to compile the names of “every administration staffer, campaign staffer, bundler, lawyer who represented them – everyone.”

‘AOC wants to cancel those who worked for Trump. Good luck with that, they say’; Memories are short in “This Town.” Just look at the veterans of George W. Bush’s White House, who did just fine for themselves. Nov. 9, 2020, politico.com

(Quoting anonymous WH officials):

“At first I brushed it off as ridiculous, but what is scary is that she’s serious,” said a White House official of AOC’s tweet. “That is terrifying that a sitting member of Congress is calling for something like that. I believe there is a life after this in politics for Trump officials, but the idea that a sitting member of Congress wants to purge from society and ostracize us should scare the American people. It definitely should scare the American people more than it scares me. That type of rhetoric is terrifying when you have 70 million Americans who voted for this president. It might start with Trump officials but what if they go further?”  […]

““The Bush people faced this,” said one of the president’s closest advisers. “Bush left office very unpopular, people thought thousands of people died in an unnecessary war and he was responsible for it. Everybody forgets that now that he’s an artist who doesn’t do partisan politics.”

This person pointed to the wealth accumulated by the two main architects of the war since Bush left office. “Don Rumsfeld did very well for himself when he left government,” said the close Trump adviser, who already has an unannounced book deal in hand. “Dick Cheney? I’ve been to his house in Wyoming!

So has Harry Whittington, smile)

As far as AOC’s ‘Is anyone archiving these Trump sycophants for when they try to downplay or deny their complicity in the future? I foresee decent probability of many deleted Tweets, writings, photos in the future’…it’s an exercise in ludricous self-parody, given that a few of her constituent detractors on Twitter seem to have downloaded the Wayback Machine application, and have archived some of her most embarrassing scrubbed past Tweets. 

In terms of ‘sycophants who were complicit with Trump’, she was a signatory to a missive (along with other ‘progressives’ and the rest of The Squad) to Sec. Thug Pompeo criminalizing the Maduro Regime, but requesting No Military Invasion, No Further Sanctions…lest everyday citizens in VZ be adversely affected.  #HowCoy

But this may Take the Cake, lol:

‘Ocasio-Cortez to Constituents on Bolivian Coup: Drop Dead’, by Jacob Levich, Feb. 14, 2020, counterpunch.org

“Although we never got past the reception desk, we were permitted to present a petition [some of you may have signed it as well] signed by leading academics and anti-imperialist organizers on behalf of the people of Bolivia. We provided all personal data and contact info requested by the office. We were promised that we would be contacted promptly to discuss scheduling a meeting.” […]

“By contrast, a group of imperialist sympathizers who had been promoting the coup for months were granted instant access. On November 16, four days after the military coup that destroyed Bolivian democracy, Ocasio-Cortez met with a group of pro-Áñez, pro-Camacho activists led by one Ana Carola Traverso. Traverso’s connections to the Bolivian coup plotters have been extensively documented online.” […]

“Rep. Ocasio-Cortez symbolically embraced the coup by posing for a photo with this group as they brandished the tricolor Bolivian flag, which during that period had become a signal of support for the golpistas (as opposed to the Wiphala flag, which symbolized popular resistance to the takeover). She told them that she supports their “democratic grassroots movement” and offered them “direct lines of communication.”

Jacob Levich is a university administrator who has lived in New York’s 14th Congressional District for more than 20 years.

Note: Levich said that Counterpunch had later deleted this photo:

She’s been the subject of two graphic novels as the Heroine, on the cover of the Rolling Stone, one film, but lest anyone get that she’s not planning to run for President in 2024, she was the cover story of Vanity Fair.  All the money in the world couldn’t buy this Puff Piece homage to…AOC.  Does it rise to the level of Camp? Depends on the eye of the beholder, I’d imagine.  (smile)

‘AOC’s Next Four Years; The history-making congresswoman addresses her biggest critics, the challenges that loom no matter who wins, and what she’s taking on next, vanity fair, Dec. 2020

(cross-posted from Café Babylon)

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CS in AZ's picture

It's hard to know what to comment on, with so many threads running throughout this, and I agree with a lot of it especially re AOC. But I am going to start with the beginning. These thoughts are not entirely in response to just this essay, but you bring up a topic that has been gnawing at me for a couple days now and this feels like a good place to discuss it further. So I'll just climb out onto the limb and say it.

I am quite happy that the media is cutting away from Trump lying to the country. And when they don't cut him off, then the least they can do is point out that he is lying.

I think it is the job of the news media, literally, to inform the people of the facts of the news, it is not simply to provide a megaphone for any politician or elected official to get up and spew whatever nonsense they want and not be questioned.

When did we start thinking the media is not supposed to be critical of the government?!?!?! This is killing me people.

Don't you remember Bush and WMDs and ... yeah, you do. You all do. And back then, we were furious that the media collectively failed in its duty and core function to investigate and inform the public, rather than simply allowing politicians to speak lies with impunity. Now I see a lot of people who are absolutely incensed that they DARED call out The Great Donald. And even that they dared to report the winner of the election.

Good grief, I feel like everyone has seriously lost the plot. What I see in this 180 turnaround is pure partisanship where people seem to truly believe that poor widdle Donnie from Queens is actually a victim in this. In anything. Even to the point where they are now demanding that journalists are required to be fluffing him constantly, and anything else is a travesty. SMH... what has happened?

Trump is a sleazy two-bit con man with severe personality disorders who is incapable of integrity. His whole game of crying about being robbed of the election is a fund-raising scam, as was written about here yesterday.

We've spent four years bitching about Hillary's constant whining and refusal to accept that she lost, her stupid desperate finger-pointing and lack of self-awareness. If the news media were to cut HER off or outright called her a liar or said that she was making baseless claims about Russians stealing the election -- you would all be dancing in the streets about it! This moaning over poor Trump being called out for his lies is pure hypocrisy.

It would be far, far more to a point to complain that the media do not subject the democrats to the same degree, or at all. Now that is a real issue.

What they are "doing to Trump" is exactly what they are supposed to be doing. Too little and too late, to be sure, but not out of line in any way.

And they should be doing the same thing to Biden, Obama, and HRC, to name but a few. Therefore what I want is more media honesty, not less, and I do not agree that them shutting down the Liar-in-Chief is terrible. It's about time and if people are going to be up in arms about it I think they're missing the point entirely or are just trump fans who don't care about integrity.

Point out that the media are doing the job they are supposed to with Trumpolini, but not with Democrats. Why is that, hum??? Now to me that is a good reason to raise some hell.

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@CS in AZ More media mic cutting of public figures and politicians spewing nonsense and lies is what we should be demanding. Putin/Russiagate should have been cut off after a few days -- but no, we got four years of that crap. (In the UK they got months of tarnishing Corbyn as an anti-Semite.)

Somehow the US media and both political parties have been attempting to replicate Watergate since 1993. Without the requisite level of facts. That was after eight years of whitewashing and covering for one of the most corrupt administrations and a dementia addled President. They didn't even really want to cover Iran-Contra; much too close to presidential treason for their taste.

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mimi's picture

@Marie
and liked it. Regret to not have bought the T-shirt with that quote on it. It was in red. Sigh ...
Free Speech Stupidity.jpg

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wendy davis's picture

@mimi

IS a license to be stupid. and i'd remind you that Stupid is in the mind of the beholder.

it's also a license to be an opinionated asshole, a bigot, a racialist, a con man, a Covid-19 dissenter/questioner, and even an authoritarian Master of the Universe such as WEF founder Klaus Schwab and eugenicist Dr. 'Vaccine Passport' Bill Gates.

back in the early 17th century, it was heresy to defy the holy roman church, as galileo discovered. no freedom to be a 'foolish heretic', and he spent the rest of his life under house arrest for his 'foolishness' even after he'd recanted in 1632 to save his head from the chopping block.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RiU2T4Psyc]

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mimi's picture

@wendy davis
nothing else I have to say about it. Other than that it promotes injustice and inequality and I happen not to like that very much.

In my mind the US has sold out the whole world with their Freedom rhetoric. After GW Bush's Freedom Fries and every Freedom rhetoric thereafter, I really stopped eating and believing in those junk food propaganda.

Sorry, Wendy, I guess we disagree here on something. Or I misunderstand you.

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wendy davis's picture

@mimi

no comprende, amiga. never mind.

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mimi's picture

@wendy davis
one of my screw ups to understand anything. Forget about it. Not worth it.

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wendy davis's picture

@mimi

different wavelengths here, amiga. but my best to you, as always,

wd

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mimi's picture

@wendy davis
might not have been related to what you wrote. (I admit that I have difficulties to read your long posts).

In my parts of the woods, those who claim and cry out loud for freedom, freedom and more freedom, are the ones, who are the true fascist promoters. Can"t help it. I live in another world. That's what I observe here.

I hope that clarifies it. And I didn't mean to upset or offend you.

I reread your post (2/3 of it) and yes, I would have appreciated if twitter had had the guts to close their platform to Trump. Trump abused it and all of the Democrats and Republicans said nothing about the abuse. Beats me. Cowards in my books.

Of course that's what people expect a German xyz to think. I am so tired of all the bs.

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Bernindownthehouse's picture

@wendy davis @wendy davis I have to upvote this just for the Indigo Girls song. But I agree with the sentiment as well. Everyone has the right to express an opinion no matter how stupid. But I don't agree with your original post criticizing the media for cutting away from Chump or calling out his lies. No one has the right for his lies to be broadcast to millions.

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"Not me. Us."

wendy davis's picture

@CS in AZ

whether commenters would be responding to Trump unplugged or Trump canceled, but to me they are variants of one piece.

let me remind you that it was corporate capitalist media (echoing ajamu baraka) who had cut off DT's mikes and made claims that he was lying. yes, i believe he's lying, but as no state SoS had certified the results, and the votes are still being counted, what right do those media orgs have the right to claim?

to me, it's the same claim as in bolvia and VZ: the elections wee fraudulent! who but independent media were there to explain...not so!

which media covered the four OPCW whistleblowers who showed that no, assad did NOT gs his own people? and yes, we know that both U papers of record were behind joe *nothin-much-will-change* biden, so who covered the NY post bidens' corruption in ukraine story? again: indy media. but rather than a different story as you imply, again: it's the same story, imo.

but i do appreciate your having vented, seriously; i just disagree. what's different now with the NYCIA times since judith miller?

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@wendy davis lying. That would be the media's job; not to make claims. IF the Courts hear cases they've not dismissed and find against Trump and THEN he continues to say he was cheated, you can say head lying.

I mean I believe he is lying, but there are procedures by which we can tell if that is fact and not mere opinion.

In the meantime there's the guy LEGALLY in office who just had 70 million vote for him. Whereas the votes for say, any journalist or organization were precisely none at all.

At issue is the 4th Estate itself is the greatest attacker on the legitimacy of our government, while they pretend to be concerned with protecting it.

Impeaching the Press and Social Media Giants... There's something we need, somehow.

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Orwell: Where's the omelette?

wendy davis's picture

@jim p

extrapolated from Boss Tweet's constant carping that voting by mail often always leads to fraud, or close to that. and yes, he's carped in that manner quite liberally. ; ).

which is likely part of the reason that in some venues, some of his well-armed supporters have been reported to be threatening vote counters inside.

well posited here, lol:

At issue is the 4th Estate itself is the greatest attacker on the legitimacy of our government, while they pretend to be concerned with protecting it.

Impeaching the Press and Social Media Giants... There's something we need, somehow.

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@CS in AZ
that cluelessness could actually be breathtaking.

What they are "doing to Trump" is exactly what they are supposed to be doing. Too little and too late, to be sure, but not out of line in any way.

Yeah, who needs free speech and to be able to hear what others have to say without it first being vetted and filtered and censored by unaccountable bureaucrats/social media moguls/AI algorithms...

But hey, it's all for our own good. Isn't it?

It's all about unity!

Travis-Tritt-nails-the-lefts-motives-for-unity-and-declares-he-wont-abide.jpg

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@CS in AZ
that cluelessness could actually be breathtaking.

What they are "doing to Trump" is exactly what they are supposed to be doing. Too little and too late, to be sure, but not out of line in any way.

Yeah, who needs free speech and to be able to hear what others have to say without it first being vetted and filtered and censored by unaccountable bureaucrats/social media moguls/AI algorithms...

But hey, it's all for our own good. Isn't it?

It's all about unity!

Travis-Tritt-nails-the-lefts-motives-for-unity-and-declares-he-wont-abide.jpg

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@CS in AZ

by expressing this approval of a media coup against freedom of speech.

Just how does this system of pre-judgement and censorship of liars by the media work? who makes that choice? Jeff Bezos? Rupert Murdoch? Paula Kerger? Mark Thompson? Alex Marlow? Just who gets to decide who the liars are and what speech should be censored?

You came to my rescue many times on DKos because I was being labeled a liar, having my opinions blocked and censored. What happened to change you?

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"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

CS in AZ's picture

@Fishtroller 02

that much. I have been thinking about this a great deal, and as you and I have been online friends in the past, I will respond, briefly.

I realize I still believe in journalism.

The entire point of freedom of speech and freedom of the press is that news outlets, reporters, publishers are allowed to criticize the government. The government cannot demand that media be silenced or only print/report what is approved by Dear Leader.

To be honest, I have been stunned by the number of people here who seem to believe that the government itself should be protected FROM freedom of the press and free speech. That is literally upside down and inside out.

It is also literally impossible for the media to censor the government. This is so opposite of the point of freedom of the press that it makes my head spin.

I also don't agree for one second that there is any kind of "coup" going on. TRUMP LOST. Badly. He goes on TV and says he won. That is a LIE, and it would be RIDICULOUS for the media to let him say that and pretend it's valid.

Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are core values of mine, just as I thought they were yours. I cannot for the life of me understand how you think Dear Leader should be allowed to control what they say.

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@CS in AZ

The media made a group decision (or that was a hell of a coincidence) to cut off a President's speech in anticipation of lies being told (have to say I loved lying Brian Williams's indignation over the issue of telling the truth). Now think for a moment what a Trump supporter sees in that action. Let's see, no reporting of the tons of lies Joe Biden has told for years, much less anything about his record in Congress or as VP, but the suddenly draw the lying line at Trump. Do you think this will do much for "healing the country"? Remember, the Obama administration and the DNC put the intelligence hit out on Trump before he even took the oath of office... landing us in Steele Dossier territory and the sham of the Mueller impeachment saga. All of that based on the biggest kind of lies- intelligence generated lies. So I would say that the other 50% of the country who voted for Trump just might be more than suspicious about the actions of cutting off Trump's speech. Why not show the speech and let US decide if it was garbage, instead of deciding for us?

I remember saying many times on DKos over the years if you don't like what I post, ignore it or argue against it, but don't HIDE it. This is the same thing on a much bigger scale.

Yes, freedom of the press means they get to decide what to cover and what not to cover. But let's see what happens if they do this to a Democratic President. I think the slope is pretty darn slippery at this point.

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"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

Raggedy Ann's picture

Next our free speech rights are taken away? Not okay.

Pleasantry

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

@Raggedy Ann events, stories, and speeches/rants that are either in the interest of the public or titillate the public is "censorship pure and simple," then it happens all the time. But there's nothing illegal about the private sector declining to cover anything or anyone.

What was the ratio of free MSM time given to an unqualified candidate in 2005-2006 compared to that given to a qualified politician? IOW who was censored then: Trump or Sanders?

Demagogues have always had and continue to have free speech rights, but they have no right to demand that media gives them a free platform.

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@Marie @Marie

as some quietly disguised commenter on this post tried to emphasize
a bit back, censorship is simply giving the powerful more rights
to express an interpretation of what could be considered as truth

thanks google

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@QMS "we the people" accept a "free market" for the dissemination of information and news and ownership of those operations. Conveniently forgetting that period of time when media ownership was highly regulated and there was something called the fairness doctrine. And "chose" not to strengthen such regulatory requirements and expand it to new communication modalities, but instead to chip away at it a mere handful of corporations control most of what is seen and heard. If one searches, one can find solid and credible reporting from those unaffiliated with the 'big boys,' but the economics of such press makes it very difficult for them to remain viable.

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@Marie who is President and just had basically half of America confirm him in his legitimacy. In a constitutional government the Courts will decide whether the claims are dishonest. And if found so and he continues to make the same claims, then he's lying. Yes, the Press is private enterprise but they only exist because of the Constitution. Nobody elected them to anything. To serve the public is their purpose. Not half the public.

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Orwell: Where's the omelette?

wendy davis's picture

@Raggedy Ann

with you, even though USian first amendment rights have been eroding for years, the most egregious case being julian assange. but then that right was framed not for the little people dissenting to government policies or actions, was it?

one can easily make a case that trump has abrogated them as well in other venues as in: planning to send in federal troops to 'quell the riots' when anti-police-state on the street actions grew too bothersome for the Owners. posse comitatus?

but to not allow the public to decide when listening to his racialist rubbish, and in this case: likely mail-in-ballots still being counted, to me it's negating part of the Free Market of Ideas Principle.

that said, if the vote is finally certified and biden does win, and DT calls in his own special ops military to stage a military coup, that'll be a horse of a different color. although i sincerely doubt they'd back him, my ownself. and the Dems are silent about it all, go figure.

it wasn't clear if you meant that the Trump Canceled Project is censorship as well, but in many ways i believe it's so. i'd also meant to ask folks to connect the dots between AOC's being so bullish on the project...to obviously running for Prez in 2024.

from the VF piece: 'everyone from cardi b to howard dean is urging her!' AOC: 'i was getting so many death threats i didn't know i'd finish my first term!'

thanks for weighing in, RA.

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So how is it many broadcasters instantly knew that there was no proof of any election irregularities and that Trump was spreading a falsehood and then promptly pull the plug on a live broadcast?

Looks more like the broadcasters got together and decided, in advance, that this would be their response if he “went there”. It’s not like our voting procedures and tabulations have not come under well deserved criticisms, even from the likes of Jimmy Carter. This media censorship stinks of an intensive and coordinated narrative management effort.

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

wendy davis's picture

@ovals49

well-considered comment. including, but not limited to this:

This media censorship stinks of an intensive and coordinated narrative management effort.

a longish story of how and why i'd seen it, but 2 of the largest Masters of the Universe had congratulated biden/harris for winning on NOV. 4: WEF founder klaus schwab and a bit later, Dr. bill gates of the Great Reset and 4th industrial revolution.

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Cassiodorus's picture

that Trump was able to do the things he did because he had elite backing. If corporate media didn't approve of, for instance, Trump's attempts to destroy the EPA or the Post Office or America's public schools, they would have done what they're doing now to Trump's speeches. So obviously they were down with those actions of Trump's.

The AOC stuff deserves a separate diary.

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"I'm starting to believe that they want Donald Trump to get elected." -- Compton Jay

wendy davis's picture

@Cassiodorus

i may be taking the meaning of your first paragraph, i'd say t'was the Ruling Class who'd backed him; and that includes the Democrats' abject compliance. who gave DT a larger military budget than he'd requested? who brought and supported the Defense of NATO (thus africom) bill?

the Ds only wanted emergency funding for the post office...just to get thru the election.

as to this; i think they're all of one piece, so i heartily disagree, even knowing you're a fan. ; )

The AOC stuff deserves a separate diary.

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anything out of the MSM. And we are talking about the democratic party potentially rigging an election, the very same party that did rig two primaries, admittedly! But because it is the odious trump and repugs disputing the "integrity of an election" its merely partisan noise? And its ok to blatantly openly censor now because we don't agree that our precious elections could be rigged? Censorship, the gift that'll keep on giving and keeping plutocrats in power. Backed fully by what passes for left in America. Lovely.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

wendy davis's picture

@lizzyh7

lol! i'd earlier brought a column by raul diego at mint press news that shorthanded, posited that trump's own FBI rigged the election against him. as in: possibly honey-trapping one of the 'kidnap and kill gretchen whitmer' neo-nazis, monitoring them for months on social media, then waiting until 3 (?) weeks before the election to arrest them. ooopsie.

when lesley stahl had asked him to comment on that op in an interview, all he said was close to 'yeah, but that was MY fibbies', and walked out.

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@wendy davis
Still can't get over those morons. They couldn't take over a lemonade stand.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

wendy davis's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

immense power they hold! bannings, shadow bannings, and outright banning from twitter. some of the worst i've seen is not towing the conventional 'scientific' facts on covid-19.

me, i still have a dozen questions.

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4 users have voted.

@wendy davis
where the conspirators thought they had privacy on social media! They deserved to be caught!

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

wendy davis's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

lol; eh? #FuquetardsBelieveFarcebookIsPrivate. or should it begin with 'Only'? i don't know much about that Zuckerburg social media, but i do now it's never been secure.

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RantingRooster's picture

not independent media. Corporate media is owned by the Oligarchy, who are actually in charge.

Integrity, what's that? Just another term for "purity", no? And lord knows we can't have that. Because, gee, what is the opposite of purity? Corruption. That is America.

One need only to see that we went from electing a man who is reported to have never told a lie in his life (Thomas Paine might have something to say about that..) , to man who has probably never told the truth in his life.

Think for a moment, what does that say about our Society? It ain't very good I can tell you that.

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11 users have voted.

C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

@RantingRooster clearly (it seems to me), portions of the oligarchy decided that Donnie is expendable, and orders went out. After all, what do they have to worry about with Their Man in the WH, ready to do their bidding.

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9 users have voted.

Mary Bennett

@Nastarana oligarchy chose to crown Trump as the 2016 GOP nominee. A segment of that oligarchy then split off because their work was to elect HRC and with Trump as her opponent, she couldn't lose.

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@Marie of an embarrassment, Donnie is. My wild, highly speculative guess is that the Barret nomination was a last straw for some, seeing as how her price (still guessing) was escalator to upper class influence and opportunity for each of her 6 children and lifetime best care for the 7th. Which, if I am right, would have set off we don't do that kind of favors for soccer moms calls or emails from financial backers to senators. All because Donnie glanced through pictures of 5 candidates and picked the one who would look best on TV.

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5 users have voted.

Mary Bennett

wendy davis's picture

@RantingRooster

as per socialist Brother Baracka, we have Corporate Capitalist media. wall street backed biden, as did 38 republican former national security flaks. i'd recently seen a forbes piece about 'a dozen billionaires' who are tickled witless at his having 'won the election'. they also know that as as dementia joe signaled in a Tweet, barack obomba will be the man behind the throne. remember his: "i'm the only thing standing between you and the pitchforks"?

popular resistance had linked to a caitlin johnstone op-ed title: 'with biden, the US war machine will be under competent management', or close to that.

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8 users have voted.

In the first place, we damn well do need to be keeping track of who is who, where do they come from, their curricula vitarum, and where do their loyalties lie. I agree that just because someone "worked" in the T-Rump Admin. does not necessarily entitle them to permanent DC residence and Important Jobs. I also think every Senator, beginning with Kerry and Clinton, who voted for the illegal attack on Iraq ought to have been voted out of office next cycle.

It looks to me like, all (so far as we know) efforts to either bribe or intimidate Rep. Cortez having failed, the Powers that (fill in personal habit of choice here) in the Demonrat Party have decided to dangle National Ticket!! in front of her. I hope she sees through the cynical gambit.

I am afraid I have long since lost interest in ceremonial meetings with. What does interest me is how is Rep. Cortez voting? What bills has she cosigned? What are her committee assignments, does she show up for them, is she also, like Reps. Omar and Porter, willing to be rude to VIPs?

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6 users have voted.

Mary Bennett

wendy davis's picture

@Nastarana

being able to answer your Qs and suppositions in any meaningful way. yes, she is very rude to VIPs, her stock in trade©, but as to how she votes, that's quite a different matter. imo, of course.

538.com says she votes to the right of nancy pelosi, but i won't go hunt up the tweet, even FWI(might be)W. my guess you'd have needed follow along, including various claim of her poor origins.

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3 users have voted.
wendy davis's picture

@Nastarana

here's her house.gov website; you can poke around, but i will offer that her virtue signaling doesn't always equate to how she votes.

have you ever wondered if she'd be so adored and celebrated if she looked like tlaib or pressley? she spends a lot of time giving make-up tips on twitter... ; )

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@wendy davis I will look into it this evening, I hope. Bill paying day, today, sigh. From where I am, being represented by, first, capable Assemblyman promoted beyond his level of competence to hapless congressman, Brindisi, and now, insane Trumpista Tenney, Cortez looks pretty good. I listened to their debate. Tenney's contribution was a rant of name calling interspersed with RW slogans. I don't think I heard a single coherent thought, much less any policy proposal come out of her mouth.

Tlaib looks like a back bencher to me, elected to bring home goodies for her district, which makes her little different from most of her House colleagues. I will go out on a limb and say that Pressley does seem to me to be the Real Deal, a political natural on the first steps of what I believe will be a most distinguished career. Notice how she keeps in the background, and lets Cortez and others run interference. I think she is quietly positioning herself to be appointed to or run for Warren's Senate seat, should Warren be appointed to a post in the Biden admin.

I am afraid I simply don't understand the importance of ceremonial "meetings with". It looks to me like a lot of activist time and energy is wasted by securing "meetings with". Having said that, I will add that Cortez clearly needs to have her staff do a better job of vetting supplicants, or simply have meetings with constituents only. The good ladies of BLM caught a lot of flack, from Black Agenda Report among others, for "meeting with" Killary, and announcing to the world that Killary had "owned her privilege". She sure does, and uses it however she can.

For me, and why I would vote for her if I could, what makes Cortez important and necessary is the running interference and opening up what I would cultural space which then makes it possible for people like Omar to ask Arrogant Big Shot Abrams why should anyone believe a word he says and Porter to ask Important Bank President Dimon how he expects his employees to live on what he pays them. Cortez is young and pretty, why shouldn't she get to primp a bit? Being myself a sewist with about 50yrs. experience, I wonder if she might have a group of grandmothers sewing for her; her suits look so well made and fitted I doubt they came off a rack.

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1 user has voted.

Mary Bennett

wendy davis's picture

@Nastarana

all of jacob levitch's column at counterpunch; it may explain his chich w/ aoc further. no, those are custom suits (many silk) she claims she buys second hand. and her bio is rather....fluid.

given your high regard for her, my guess is that you'll like the longish Vanity Fair puff piece...in which she shares secrets, as well.

best to you, nastarana.

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@wendy davis Vanity Faire doesn't interest me.

If Cortez is going to disrespect her constituents, she'll not be in Congress for very long. I am afraid I still don't see the point of meetings with. Some folks have to have that photo to hang on the wall, I guess.

It is distressing to see her on the wrong side of the Bolivia coup, but the Bolivians seem for now to have taken matters into their own hands. Foreign policy always was Bernie's weakness and it looks like Cortez might have the same fault. Howsomever, as I am now to be represented by Crazy Lady Tenney, I can't find it in me to care very much about Mr. Levich's hurt feelings.

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2 users have voted.

Mary Bennett

wendy davis's picture

@Nastarana

thanks for weighing in. ; )

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RantingRooster's picture

@Nastarana at votesmart.org

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1 user has voted.

C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

Not the current media. Have a show with people discussing their opinions on what was said, but don't let the news broadcast edit public remarks.

This is exactly how our rights get whittled down, and will continue, only the targets will change. 'First they came for the...."

First target someone that a large number of people intensely dislike, like tRump, then suspend his freedom of speech rights (regardless of content) and everyone cheers as they let those news broadcasts be the(unelected) arbiters of truth.

Would they be cheering if any of their heroes like Obama or Hillary or Biden got their comments edited on air on Fox (or anywhere)?
They have certainly told a lot of lies on air, but there would be a lot of outrage at denying them their freedom of speech and their own media supporters would be leading the calls for outrage from the masses.

Personally, I would join both sides in calling out the outrage and threats to our right to freedom of speech and an impartial press behind censorship.

As was mentioned above, how did all those media outlets instantly know everything said, and unsaid, was a lie? Even tho it was a very safe guess doesn't the Public get to hear it ?
Where was their prescience during the WMD lies that lead to a war costing hundreds of thousands of deaths (still counting), millions of refugees and destroyed a Country?
(just one of many examples available)

I'm not suggesting they should've cut away from GW Bush announcing it, but afterwards they could've debated on air what was said, with pro war and anti war voices present.
Didn't happen.

This censorship goes hand in hand with anyone supporting making a list of people that supported the 'other Party' they don't like. Blacklisting and exposing them all, and if that is alright then surely no one will complain when AOC,and others that supported the idea also end up on a list themselves some day when the other Party is in power.
The outrage will come too late.

I guess too many didn't notice how many very good, even progressive sites got blocked not too long after Alex Jones got banned. People warned it wouldn't stop with Jones and it not only didn't stop but has continued to expand.

Beware of opening the door to censorship of anyone, it's Pandora's box on an epic scale and will come back to bite those that opened that door someday.

Robespierre is best known for his role as a member of the Committee of Public Safety as he personally signed 542 arrests... Coming into effect at the height of the Reign of Terror, the law removed the few procedural guarantees still afforded to the accused, vastly expanded the power of the tribunal, and ultimately resulted in the number of executions in France rising dramatically." (wiki) (emphasis mine)

We all know what happened to Robespierre, who obviously didn't care when it was other people literally losing their heads.

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9 users have voted.
wendy davis's picture

@aliasalias

your comment could be a stand-alone essay, my friend. i've read it twice and will do so again to absorb it more fully. but that's just the starting point, isn't it? 'opinions as facts'. i did chuckle at shep smith's:

“What the President of the United States is saying, in large part, is absolutely untrue.”

fascinating idea, more akin to 'fairness doctrine' long ago. but how to juge even that?

Have a show with people discussing their opinions on what was said, but don't let the news broadcast edit public remarks.

I'm not suggesting they should've cut away from GW Bush announcing it, but afterwards they could've debated on air what was said, with pro war and anti war voices present.
Didn't happen.

and yes, social media censorship has become epic already, as has youtube owned by...eric schmidt/google.

i want to decide as well, and i think the public should be allowed to, as well.

time for me to take a hegg-ache/bonkers eyes break, but i certainly applaud all you've written, alaisalias.

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4 users have voted.

@wendy davis

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@wendy davis Listen to him talk about"spreading the love" in Iraq.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M80wM79LhQ

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wendy davis's picture

@aliasalias

fuck is right! sorry i only made it 7 mins, but videos make my tummy wonky. 'trump's lies are a fart in comparison!'

brother baraka's similar take Nov. 10:

@ajamubaraka

I have been checking social media everyday since the election was called for Biden to see when the Trump military coup was going to start that liberals & the latte-left promised would happen. I've been checking FaceBook but decided to see if folks might know in twitter world.

Folks are you really all right with private corporations determining what is "misinformation"? Really?

The airwaves & internet must be claimed by the public. By engaging in thought policing & entering the political sphere as partisans, big tech firms have demonstrated that they cannot be allowed to exist in their present forms. The public must claim and de-commodify the internet.

This is troubling for anyone concerned with unchecked corporate power. Free speech also means speech from despicable people & information that one might conclude is incorrect.

@washingtonpost Nov.9

Facebook takes down a large network of pages tied to former Trump chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon for misinformation https://wapo.st/3knM9kt

zac white @_a_whale_ Nov 10
·
Replying to @ajamubaraka

no outrage when they remove pro-Palestine pages on behalf of the Israel, anti-fascist pages on behalf of DHS, and Venezuelan pages on behalf of the State Department either

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3 users have voted.

Has this ever happened before? To Nixon? To Reagan?
The media are showing that they only show you what they ALLOW you to see.

Mark Twain was right about the newspapers.

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9 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

@The Voice In the Wilderness
right about the newspapers." when he said...?

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1 user has voted.

Orwell: Where's the omelette?

TheOtherMaven's picture

@jim p

“If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed.”

That goes triple for the teevee.

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9 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

wendy davis's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

me that i'd meant to bring this just after brother baraka's comments:

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5 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

is not so much that they’re doing it because he is lying, but the timing of it is what stands out. And it feels scripted because they seem to say the same things. They knew he lied every time he spoke for the last 4 years, but they covered him anyway with no censorship. And they are still covering others when they lie to us. Hypocrisy much?

The biggest hypocrisy of this whole thing is that they themselves have been lying to us or congress has through them for the same last 4 years mostly about Russia. Lying on TV/news is not new. We knew Bush was lying to us about Iraq. Obama and Trump both lied to us about Syria. Not covering the lying and calling it out is.

I also think that all the points of view are valid. Everyone sees this a tad bit differently and that’s okay.

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6 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

wendy davis's picture

@snoopydawg

with print media than teevee media, but see this shep smith 2003 aliasalias brought above.

from caitlin johnstone on a related theme: ‘Caitlin Johnstone: Americans didn’t vote against Trump, they voted against more media psychological abuse’, 11 Nov, 2020, RT.com

"'Trump derangement syndrome' didn't come from Trump. It came from abusive media trying to spin the evils of his presidency as somehow worse than any other US president's.

The word "coup" is being thrown about in American liberal media today, not because US liberals suddenly became uncomfortable with the fact that their nation constantly stages coups and topples governments around the world as a matter of routine policy, but because they are all talking about (you guessed it) Donald Trump.

To be clear, none of the high-powered influencers who have been promoting the use of this word actually believe there is any possibility that Donald Trump will somehow remain in office after January of next year when he loses his legal appeals against the official results of the election, which would be the thing that a coup is. There is no means or institutional support through which the sitting president could accomplish such a thing. This is not a coup, it’s a glorified temper tantrum. Trump will leave office at the appointed time.

The establishment narrative managers are not terrifying their audiences with this word because they believe there is any danger of a coup actually happening. They are doing it because it’s their last chance to use Trump to psychologically abuse their audiences for clicks." [large snip]

Without all the deranged and persistent fearmongering, driven by a disdain for Trump’s unrefined narrative management style and an insatiable hunger for ratings and clicks, it would never have occurred to Americans that they should be more terrified of this president than of any other sh***y Reaganite Republican. The Russian collusion narrative which dominated most of Trump’s presidency turned out tobe essentially nothing. The concentration camps, millions of deportations and armed militias driving non-whites out of the country that we were promised never came; he never even came anywhere close to Obama’s deportation numbers and his support from minorities actually went up. He hasn’t been any more warlike than his predecessors overall, and by some measures arguably less so. Most Americans actually reported that their lives had improved over Trump’s term before the pandemic hit.

If people had just been given raw information about Trump’s presidency, they would have seen a lot of bad things, but things that are bad in the same way all the horrible aspects of the most destructive government on earth are bad. They wouldn’t have known to be horrified and anxious and have headaches and irritable bowel syndrome. They would have handled themselves in about the same way they always handled themselves during the administration of a president they didn’t like.

Instead, they were psychologically terrorized. Made frightened, sick and traumatized by mass media pundits who only care about ratings and clicks, as was made clear when CBS chief Les Moonves famously said that Trump is bad for America but great for CBS. Dragged through years of Russia hysteria and Trump hysteria with any excuse to spin Trump’s presidency as a remarkable departure from norms, when in reality it was anything but. It was a fairly conventional Republican presidency." [...]

"Meanwhile, another pernicious effect of making Trump seem uniquely horrible has been retroactively making his predecessors seem nice by comparison, which is why George W Bush now enjoys majority support among Democrats after years of unpopularity. Their depravity is hidden behind a media-generated wall labeled “NOT TRUMP”. And when Biden steps into office, his depravity will be hidden from view in the same way, neutering all mainstream opposition to his most deadly and dangerous actions."

but NPR cut him off, too, and it's publicly funded, which is what really made the smoke come out of ralph nader's ears.

mr. wd and i tried to remember whether or not post-newtie gingrich PBS recieves any public funding or not, but i'd seen an ad for this last sunday night, and on popular resistance's newsletter this a.m.: Hybrid War On China Crafted By Marquee Brands Like Frontline
, By Patrice Greanville, Greanville Post. excerpts:

Since the the good old days are here again with Biden, according to millions of clueless Democrats, the deep state media is wasting no time to ratchet up its “Chinagate” angle, just in case Biden should forget to go full hawk on Beijing (which is not likely to happen, judging from his record and the pool of war criminals he will be selecting from for his foreign policy cabinet).

Observe how in this promo mail, FRONTLINE, which once upon a time came up with some acceptable instances of journalism, is now, in the era of Russiagate, and Trump derangement, another victim of the all-enveloping media degeneracy in the service of an equally degenerate empire. Word for word, this promo is a textbook example of Cold War propaganda at its vilest. The intent to demonize Beijing is clear, yet I’m sure this despicable program will fool millions, as it was designed to do.

In the annals of filth, the American propaganda system has no peers when it comes to effective, sanctimonious disinformation, sanctimony and fake empathy the favorite pose of consummate hypocrites. Sadly, this fecal example of bourgeois journalism is what passes for reportage these days, even on PBS, and expect it to get worse. Mental chewing gum for comfortable liberals, though, who can’t live without the New York Times, NPR and the rest of their habit-forming “elegant media”.

We are so sure you will have the requisite antenna NOT to fall for the torrent of lies and manipulations in this fake documentary, that we are including it here, in this post’s appendix, for your own examination. Keep it for the record. Notice that they fail to show real atrocities, nor can they show the Uyghurs living in abject poverty, or deprived of their places of worship, since Beijing has in fact built many mosques for their use.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM1DjkPWtj0&feature=emb_logo]

i remember pluto's republic saying she knew a lot about the Uygurs (as partially a psyop?) and i'd hoped she'd have time to bring a discussion about it. the Frontline seems to be quite a hit piece.

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6 users have voted.
wendy davis's picture

@wendy davis

The government does not fund PBS. The government actually funds something called the Corporation on Public Broadcasting which in turn provides PBS with about 15% of their annual budget.

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3 users have voted.

has had its ups and downs to say the least. Abraham Lincoln jailed newspaper editors who wrote articles against how he was handling the war.

Our government has lied to the American people millions of times. Every President has had at least one episode of lying to the citizens.

I was accused of lying and worse on Daily Kos and eventually banned. A big lesson on free speech there. If it weren't for free speech, atheists would be driven underground in this country.

Anyone who thinks it is OK for the press to decide before the fact that a President or anyone else speaking to the government should be cut off during a speech has no idea what free speech means.

Joe Biden outright lied at least 5 times in his debate with Sanders. Should he have been muted by the media for that?

I find this incident with Trump and the press incredibly frightening and dangerous. Even more frightening is how many here think this was even remotely permissible in a country that values free speech.

We are not children here who need our nannies to protect us from lies. When the press becomes our nannies, we are in REAL danger. The actions of our media in this incident is no different than the Islamic gunmen who slaughtered the staff at Charlie Hebdo in France. If people here don't see that, then I'm beyond saddened by that.

Je Suis Charlie!

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2 users have voted.

"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

CS in AZ's picture

@Fishtroller 02

Anyone who thinks it is OK for the press to decide before the fact that a President or anyone else speaking to the government should be cut off during a speech has no idea what free speech means.

---

El Trumpo is not 'speaking TO the government' -- he IS the effing government!

Also they didn't decide "before the fact" -- because they cut him off DURING the speech, and after he made it clear he was simply going to lie about everything.

Lots of politicians and would-be pundits want to go on TV and sell their spiel. They find ways to do so. But no specific news media are obligated to give *anyone* the stage and the spotlight.

Trump wasn't censored FFS. Two channels carried the speech in full, it is still available to watch the entire thing. He and his family are still spewing their bullshit loud and clear. Censorship? JFC. Call me when someone puts him in jail for speaking his crap. Or even when his words become hard to find and listen to.

I respect you FT, but I will never agree that the news media should be subjected to control by any government official, even the president. They are FREE to write, say, print and publish what they want. In my view, anyone who does not understand that does not understand what free speech means.

ETA: Here is a link to the full text of the so-called "censored" speech, provided on the federal government's official website: Remarks by President Trump on the Election

Here's a video of the "censored" speech in full, freely available on the corporate media site YouTube:
[video:https://youtu.be/m8aEo4U5ZnQ]

This is your definition of alarming censorship? Really?

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3 users have voted.

I understand your hair on fire about Trump, but what I see all around me in the world of Dem voters is a type of deep loathing and hatred that I find quite irrational. I didn't vote for either candidate (wrote in George McGovern) because they both are consummate liars. Joe Biden also has a resume of actual legislative actions that hurt millions of people (that Bankruptcy Bill that he tried claim he didn't actually write for the credit card companies) or limited freedoms (he wrote proposals that became the Patriot Act), or.. well there are dozens of other examples. His resume of damage is longer by far than Trump's But we weren't allowed or trusted to have an open conversation about Joe's past or his fabricated background history because the MSM made sure it didn't pop up at all. Most people who voted for Joe had NO IDEA what he has lied about or fabricated about his life, and most of all, they don't know anything about his record over 45 years. My husband and I usually watch NPR. Over the last year we notice how slanted toward Biden the reporting under Judy Woodruff became. Even though we loathed Trump, we felt that this was wrong, and overall what is happening here is definitely more alarming than anything idiot Trump could say or claim.

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2 users have voted.

"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

CS in AZ's picture

@Fishtroller 02

I agree that the press should be going after Biden and the democrats as well. That's exactly what I said in the first place.

I am working now and simply cannot expend more time and energy on this discussion and I've made my points and explained how I see it. I am going to leave it at that, I hope.

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3 users have voted.

@CS in AZ

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1 user has voted.

"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin