WHERE’S MY SARAH HOYT SHOCKED FACE? Meth lab found at San Francisco hotel room used as city COVID-19 shelter.
Archive for 2020
August 5, 2020
MASSIVE SURVEY FINDS MOST AMERICANS SEE INTENTIONAL BIAS IN MEDIA: The Gallup Poll and Knight Foundation surveyed 20,000 Americans just before the Pandemic began on their opinions of the news media and came up with confirmation of what folks on the Right have been saying for decades:
“Many Americans feel the media’s critical role of informing and holding those in power accountable is compromised by increasing bias. As such, Americans have not only lost confidence in the ideal of an objective media, they believe news organizations actively support the partisan divide. At the same time, Americans have not lost sight of the value of news — strong majorities uphold the ideal that the news media is fundamental to a healthy democracy.”
And more specifically:
“Nearly three-quarters of Americans say they see too much bias in the reporting of news that is supposed to be objective as “a major problem” (73%), up from 65% in the 2017 study.
“Nearly 8 in 10 Americans (79%) say news organizations they distrust are trying to persuade people to adopt a certain viewpoint, while 12% say they are trying to report the news accurately and fairly but are unable to do so.”
There is much, much more in these data. Next question: Is anybody in the media listening? I seriously doubt it.
SCIENCE, UNSETTLED: Study questions benefit of cholesterol drugs. “Hundreds of millions of people worldwide take cholesterol-lowering drugs, like statins, but now a new review suggests that many folks don’t benefit from these medications. The researchers said the review of 35 randomized controlled trials failed to show a consistent benefit in lowering the risk of heart attack or stroke, or for preventing deaths.”
Compare to the treatment of, say, Hydroxychloroquine.
CANCER IS OLD: Malignant bone cancer found in ancient dinosaur fossil.
ITALIANS SHOULD RIOT, OR AT LEAST WHACK A FEW PEOPLE: Chicago Takes Down 2 Columbus Statues Overnight.
But Tony Soprano’s not around to protect Columbus anymore.
FALLOUT ON THOSE RUSSIAN MERCS ARRESTED IN BELARUS: Russia warns Belarus will pay price for contractors’ arrests.
Backstory: Belarus seeks Russian explanation after detaining suspected mercenaries before election.
RIOTS IN THE AGE OF MORAL NARCISSISM: Nashville woman faces federal charges for arson at Metro Courthouse. “Authorities located multiple video clips and photos of the damage on social media. According to the complaint, [Shelby] Ligons was ‘depicted setting fire to the poster and placing it inside a window located on the exterior structure of City Hall.’”
WILL HE CHOOSE THE FAR-LEFT RADICAL OR THE FAR-FAR LEFT RADICAL? Sources Close to Biden Say He’s Narrowed His VP List to Two.
WELL, GOOD: U.S. Car Sales Weren’t So Bad in July.
TODAY AT 3:30 P.M. ET: VIP Gold Live Chat with VodkaPundit, Kruiser, and Preston.
These chats have been a lot of fun to do, and not only as an excuse for day-drinking.
COME SEE THE RACISM INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM: Ted Cruz: Antifa Rioters ‘Are Profoundly Racist.’
MEDIA MYTH ALERT: NY Times commentary offers up that hoary 1960 debate myth.
The essay proposed an end to the presidential debates — a fixture in the U.S. political landscape since 1976 — because “have never made sense as a test for presidential leadership.” The author, veteran Washington journalist Elizabeth Drew who was on a debate panel 44 years ago, has made such an argument before.
But the essay’s publication yesterday also looked like prospective justification for shielding gaffe-prone Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, from confronting President Donald Trump in three 90-minute debates during the unfolding campaign. Biden’s fumbling, sometimes-bizarre statements may not serve him well in such encounters. (Of course, as Drew has written on other occasions, Trump’s isn’t necessarily an effective or well-prepared debater.)
What most interested Media Myth Alert, though, was Drew’s invoking the myth of viewer-listener disagreement.
“Perhaps the most substantive televised debate of all,” she wrote, “was the first one, between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, which Nixon was considered to have won on substance on the radio, while the cooler and more appealing Kennedy won on television.”
Nixon “won on substance on the radio” while “Kennedy won on television.”
Uh-huh.
Read the whole thing.
THE SEXBOTS ARE GETTING CLOSER: Robots can now give full-body personalised massages at home. Nobody tell notorious robophobe Matthew Yglesias.
IT SURE DID LOOK EQUIVALENT TO A TACTICAL NUKE: Beirut Blast: How Many Kilotons? “I wrote Lebanon expert Michael Totten to ask about the blast, and he said he heard that the Lebanese Army has been storing confiscated high explosives there since 2014. If we assume that it’s ANFO rather than straight ammonium nitrate, that’s about 72% as effective as TNT, and with just under twice the detonation velocity of ammonium nitrate. That yields a blast of 1.98 kilotons.”
Read the whole thing.
SO DOES THIS MEAN RACISTS GET PROTECTION UNDER THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT? New research suggests racism could be a genetic trait.
“BREAKING: Rand Paul just introduced legislation to fund families directly using existing federal education funding,” Corey DeAngelis of Reason tweets, adding, “The funding would follow the child to wherever they received an education That could be a public school, private school, or homeschool option. This would fund students instead of systems.”
CHRISTIAN TOTO: Did CNN, PBS Cross the Line with Two New Documentaries? “The publicly funded network shillls for the left, while CNN promotes itself.”
SUPER GAFFE-O-MATIC ’76: Joe Biden explains why he hasn’t taken a cognitive test by asking a black journo if he’s a junkie.
STANDING UP FOR GOVERNMENT BUREAUCRATS EVERYWHERE: Scientists Say We Need to Save The World’s Parasites Before We Lose Them Forever.