Every time I suggest liberals get tough on the media, I hear "no, no we have to back them." They brought us the Iraq War and the Trump presidency but I guess the left has a sadistic thing going on.
I didn't see the Saturday event but agree with Kathy Griffin -- don't invite a comedian to perform and then whine about the jokes. In terms of what Oliver's saying about the media -- I support that 100%. From my viewpoint, the press is never your friend. I've been applauded in the press, I've been attacked. It's usually had very little to do with me and a lot more to do with 'figuring out' whatever the narrative is supposed to be -- and the narrative is always what's going to provide readers. If that's applauding you, they write a nice piece, if they'll get more attention for ripping you apart, that's what they'll do.
The press is not anyone's friend.
It lies and covers up.
Right now, the METOO# movement is a hijacking in broad daylight. This was supposed to lead to the real victims: children. A lot of the stories instead are about the 'horror' of a come on. I'm not surprised. A leading lefty tried to rape me. I pushed him off and hit him where it hurts. That didn't stop him, years later, from showing in my hometown and trashing me on radio airwaves. He's a creep and everyone knows he is. A rape attempt is something horrible -- an actual rape is much worse. Having to tell someone, "No, I won't give you a massage"? It's something to laugh about. But instead it's become the "I was victimized!" story. No, you weren't.
The assaults on children are very real and they're apparently going to be shoved aside so we can hear more 'testifying' about how some bad actress would have had a career if only she hadn't turned down ____. No, you probably wouldn't have had a career. It didn't work that way.
Harvey could only prevent you from being hired for his films. And then he could only do that if the director didn't fight back.
A lot of women have taken up a lot of time and space with b.s.
I stand by Rose McGowan. She's the real deal. And she seriously suffered -- both in terms of her career and certainly in terms of being raped.
But, before the movement was hijacked by Alyssa and her CAA husband (CAA who whored women out for years -- including a French actress who's considering telling her story -- you better pray she doesn't, Alyssa), it was supposed to be headed to exposing the pedophiles.
METOO# (in it's White version) is nonsense and a distraction.
The press self-congratulating over it is nonsense as well.
But that's what the press does -- and it's never self-aware, let alone self-critical.
Ronan Farrow? The great hero? I thought Ronan believed his sister Dylan? (I don't.) Well isn't the story there that she was abused as a child? So why has Ronan refused to explore that? It's not because people haven't opened up to him. Many adults have shared their experiences of being abused as a child. But Ronan chooses not to write about that.
He colors in the lines very well, he just doesn't do anything independently or worthy of praise.
In that regard, he truly has become the press.
The press is not anyone's friend. Nor does it do its job that is enshrined in The Constitution.
For all the idiot Meryls fawning over THE POST, the best portrayal -- the most honest -- in the age of color films and TV (as opposed to the old black & white) remains Valerie Bertinelli's ROCKABYE.
They run with a narrative.
In the infamous hearing where Leon Panetta was discussing the US' continued military role in Iraq for 2012, the press ignored all of that to instead report that John McCain was surly in a hearing. I was there. We reported on it in multiple snapshots -- starting with the November 15, 2011 snapshot (the day of the hearing).
Let's note just one exchange from that hearing:
Senator Joe Lieberman: Understood. In your own
thinking, since you obviously didn't recommend zero troops after January
1st, what do you think now are the greater risks that we face as a
result of the fact that we will have no continuing US military presence
in Iraq.
General
Martin Dempsey: Well some of the things that the -- that the larger
military footprint address will now have to be addressed diplomatically
and that is some of the things that have come up here today about the,
you know, the protection of the small religious communities and so
forth, the Arab-Kurd tensions, if you will. But I also want to mention
this Office of Security Cooperation will help us ensure that the foreign
military sales program, the program of record as we call, it that
continues to build the institution of Iraqi security forces, will
continue to be addressed. So this isn't a divorce. It might feel that
way because the way the numbers have -- the way the Iraqi government
came to the decision. But the fact is we will be embedded with them as
trainers, not only tactically but also at the institutional level. And I
think that's an important way to mitigate the risk that you are talking
about.
You can read that and grasp it, right?
The press couldn't and they supposedly were in attendance (most reports about the tiff and surly nature of the first hour of the hearing were written by reporters who were not at that hearing).
Instead of the American people hearing that the US military would remain in Iraq and that one area they would remain in Iraq as was "trainers," they were fed the lie that all troops were out of Iraq.
The press doesn't work to tell the truth.
Where are the muckrakers of today?
The fact that muckrakers were ever even needed -- and they were and are -- goes to the nature of the press which is reflexive and lazy.
#IraqElections
Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani will issue words of guidance next Friday in regards to the upcoming May 12 parliamentary elections.
To read the US coverage of the upcoming elections, al-Sistani doesn't exist. This despite the fact that he remains one of the most important voices in Iraq.
Oliver's right and thank you to him because I just got an idea for the editorial at THIRD -- we were stumped and took a break.
I'll close this by noting a story that really speaks to who the press is.
A friend calls me to apologize for an article his outlet ran. It was rude and it trashed me. I didn't know about it and probably wouldn't have because I don't follow my own press. They're going to say what they're going to say and if you read the good then you have to read the bad so I just ignore it all and always have.
But here's this friend at a newspaper. And he's the editor. And he didn't stop the article -- which, as he detailed it to me, included known falsehoods.
He's the editor.
And we went to college together.
And we knew each other in high school.
But it was more important that I be trashed.
He's the editor and when his first born had the horse riding accident that was going to leave the son in a vegetable state, I'm the one he called begging to find the best doctor for his son. Which I did. And the son recovered.
And despite all that history -- and so much more -- he allowed his periodical to trash me with known lies. While insisting that it was, you know it's coming, "nothing personal."
The press is not your friend -- is never your friend -- even if some of the members of it are.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
