I CRITICIZED BLM. THEN I WAS FIRED:

Until recently, I was a director of data science at Thomson Reuters, one of the biggest news organizations in the world. It was my job, among other things, to sift through reams of numbers and figure out what they meant.

About a year ago, I stumbled on a really big story. It was about black Americans being gunned down across the country and the ways in which we report on that violence. We had been talking nonstop about race and police brutality, and I thought: This is a story that could save lives. This is a story that has to be told.

But when I shared the story with my coworkers, my boss chastised me, telling me expressing this opinion could limit my ability to take on leadership roles within the company. Then I was maligned by my colleagues. And then I was fired.

This is the story Reuters didn’t want to tell.

* * * * * * * *

A decade ago, my experience at Thomson Reuters would have been unthinkable. Most Americans probably think it’s still unthinkable. That’s what makes it so dangerous. Most of us don’t understand how deeply compromised our news sources have become. Most of us have no idea that we are suffused with fictions and half-truths that sound sort of believable and are shielded from scrutiny by people whose job is to challenge them. This is true, above all, of my fellow liberals, who assume that only Republicans complain about the mainstream media. But this is not a partisan issue. This is a We The People issue.

In January, I filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination stating that I was fired in retaliation for complaining about a racially hostile work environment. (The MCAD works in conjunction with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.) We’ll see whether the state finds that there are grounds for a lawsuit.

However that shakes out will not change the fact that thousands of black Americans are dead, in part because too many people are still unaware of basic facts about policing since their trusted news sources meticulously obscure the truth. The job of journalists is to report the stories that don’t comport with the prevailing or popular narrative. We desperately need them to do that again.

Odd that this sort of leftist religious zealotry would happen at Reuters, who assured us in the wake of 9/11 that “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” Read the whole thing.

READER FAVORITE: LED Garage Light 2 Pack. #CommissionEarned

LIVE AT 4PM EASTERN: ‘Five O’Clock Somewhere’ with Kruiser, VodkaPundit, Special Guest.

JUSTICE DELAYED (SIX YEARS!) IS JUSTICE DENIED: Drake University’s student senate discriminates against its Turning Point USA chapter and denies it official recognition due to ‘harmful’ views. And this time they can’t even blame the “Drake Comrades.”

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: High inflation leaves food banks struggling to meet needs. “Food banks across America say those economic conditions are intensifying demand for their support at a time when their labor and distribution costs are climbing and donations are slowing. The problem has grown to the point where last week President Joe Biden called for a Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health in September, the first since 1969.”

Oh, a conference.

I CERTAINLY HOPE NOT: Food Riots Hit Iran … Are We Next?

FEAR AND LOATHING AT THE BEZOS POST: WaPo Pens Tribute to Man It Would’ve Blacklisted — Hunter S. Thompson.

But the troubling side of Thompson is something the Post had to leave out of its own write-up. To tell the full truth about Thompson would, in the eyes of the Post’s intolerant subscribers, negate everything positive written about him. If the Post included Thompson’s warts, the left-wing outlet would be attacked by its own readers for daring to say anything positive about such a brute. What’s more, the closing paragraphs of the Post piece would be exposed for what it is — laughable:

Perhaps even more mind-boggling: Thompson’s initial note to [Washington Post publisher Philip] Graham is a case study in calumny. “He’s clearly angling for a job covering Latin America, and he does it not only by criticizing the Newsweek’s coverage, calling it an ‘abomination’ and a ‘fraud,’ but Graham himself, and personally, calling him a ‘phony’ who’s ‘overpaid.’”

[…]

Had Graham lived, might Thompson have ended up toiling at The Post? Unlikely, says Richardson. “He lost every job he ever managed to land.”

Good heavens, is today’s Washington Post — one of the media’s primary enforcers of Woke Nazism — actually suggesting that a man who hurled racial slurs and who stands accused of domestic abuse, misogyny, and inappropriate workplace behavior, would have been appropriate Washington Post material?

What a joke.

If Thompson didn’t hate Richard Nixon and oppose objectivity in journalism, the Post would have savaged him, not gushed all over him.

Hunter S. Thompson was a fantastic writer, but not for very long. Due to his addictions, which fueled his endless supply of demons, he flamed out after only a few books. Nevertheless, everyone should read Hell’s Angels, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72. There’s nothing else like them. Plenty have tried and failed to write gonzo… There was only one Hunter S. Thompson.

But oh the fun a pre-dissipated Thompson would have had writing about the Post in the 1970s: Sally Quinn, Georgetown’s Madame Blavatsky.

Not that much has changed there, when they’re pumping out click-bait headlines such as this:

Don’t make the Post sic Taylor Lorenz on you, video game industry!

SO OVER THE LAST SIX YEARS NORMAN PODHORETZ AND I HAD A COMMON EXPERIENCE:  Norman Podhoretz on Donald Trump and ex-friends.

And I also wondered if they’d gone insane.  Has someone checked their basements for pods?

Related (From Ed): John Podhoretz: A Son’s Eulogy for Midge Decter (1927-2022).

(Updated and bumped.)

HOW IT STARTED: Defund the police: What it means for Denver and who supports it.

—The Denver Post, June 10th, 2020.

How it’s going: ‘It’s Not Worth It’: HVAC Company Says It Will No Longer Service Customers in Downtown Denver.

A Wheat Ridge-based heating and air conditioning company says it will no longer service businesses in or around downtown Denver due to crime, drug use and danger to its field crews.

“It’s not really worth it to put up with it,” said Tony Cirbo, operations manager for AC Mechanical and Engineering. He said the company works up and down the Front Range with about 100 industrial and commercial clients.

But Cirbo said, after hearing from field crews who were “very nervous” working in parts of downtown, the company made the decision to turn down work requests from downtown Denver. Cirbo said the business decision was also due in part to the fact that the company only had two clients in downtown Denver.

But he said his crews complained about coming across needles, drug paraphernalia, feces and were concerned about theft.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen,” Cirbo said.

—CBS 4 Denver, yesterday.

Who could have predicted in 2020 that defunding the police would create de facto no-go zones for the cops, which would result in spiraling crime rates, and a lack of goods and services in those areas? Other than pretty much everyone who didn’t have the fervid “defund” religious fever.

WE WERE SOMEWHERE AROUND WILMINGTON ON THE EDGE OF THE GOLF COURSE WHEN THE DRUGS BEGAN TO TAKE HOLD: Yes, Safe Smoking Kits Include Free Crack Pipes. We Know Because We Got Them. Washington Free Beacon Investigates: Five cities, five free crack pipes.

Flashbacks from America’s Newspaper of Record:

● Biden Admin Issues New Masks With Holes In Them So You Can Smoke Your Free Government Crack Pipe.

● Biden Announces New Program To Give White Suburban Women Free Wine Glasses.

● Hunter Biden Arrives At White House In Fake Mustache And Glasses To Receive Free Crack Pipe.

UPDATE:

(Updated and bumped.)

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUEST OF THE BLUE ZONES: Despite Rising Crime, Nation’s Capital Is at Forefront of Cities Pushing Leniency.

This more lenient approach to child sexual abuse is just one of many changes being considered by the council. A sweeping new criminal code would redefine what counts as a crime in the nation’s capital, how those accused of crimes are tried, and how those convicted are punished.

Although many states are pushing back against progressive criminal justice reforms amid rising rates of violent crime, liberal jurisdictions from east to west continue to push for more lenient sentencing. Washington, D.C., stands out for its softer approach in the face of a crime problem illustrated by a homicide rate that jumped from 24 per 100,000 residents in 2019, to 29 in 2020, and then to 34 in 2021.

Proponents say the changes are designed to reduce the number of people arrested, prosecuted, convicted, and incarcerated. As it now stands, the District’s criminal code ‘’is out-of-sync with current public norms and best practices,” according to Richard Schmechel, a prime mover of its reform effort. Schmechel, until recently executive director of the D.C. Criminal Code Reform Commission, said the new approach will reduce “errors, arbitrariness, and bias” in the current system.

But critics warn that the changes now being considered will make it difficult to hold offenders responsible for crimes.

Washington’s black neighborhoods will pay — are paying — the price for the progressive gentry’s largesse.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Illegal immigrants first to get ‘pallets’ of hard-to-find baby formula.

And the Acela class couldn’t care less: ‘Having trouble feeding your infant? HA HA HA’: Amy Siskind mocking everyday Americans who can’t find baby formula goes OH so very wrong.

PRIORITIES: American Infants Go Hungry While Biden Sends Baby Formula to Illegals.

DEAL OF THE DAY: Digital Instant Meat Thermometer. #CommissionEarned

DEAL OF THE DAY: Vabogu Monocular Telescope. #CommissionEarned

SPACE: Watch a space startup spin a projectile into the sky at more than 1,000 miles per hour.

RATS ON THE WEST SIDE, BED BUGS UPTOWN: Pizza Rat is back and he brought friends.

FAR AWAY, SO CLOSE: After Painting Her Colleagues as Out of Touch, Dem Rep. Katie Porter Says Inflation ‘Reinforces’ the ‘Need’ for Abortion.

The ghost of Margaret Sanger smiles.

TO BE FAIR, JOE SAYS A LOT OF STUFF: U.S. Passes 1 Million COVID Deaths Despite Biden’s Promise to ‘Shut Down the Virus.’

OCEANIA HAS NEVER BEEN AT WAR WITH BIRTHING PERSONS: Democrats Have Jumped Back on the ‘Men Can Get Pregnant’ Fantasy Train.

Well, that was quick.

In the past week and a half, the radical left went from saying “men can get pregnant” to vowing to protect “a woman’s right to choose.” In an instant, radical leftist gender theory was tossed aside as quickly as the news broke that the Supreme Court appears to be on the verge of overturning Roe v. Wade.

But it didn’t last long. It turns out that the radical left is still very much beholden to the LGBT lobby, they just … kind of sort of forgot for a while. But the fantasy train is back on track, because the latest version of the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), which was defeated in a bipartisan vote on Wednesday, removed all references to women “in deference to the demands of the LGBTQ community.”

And not surprisingly, woke Corporate America is quick to join the gleichschaltung: Calvin Klein Hires ‘Pregnant Man’ for New Campaign.

ON MY WAY TO THE OLD PARKLAND CONFERENCE IN DALLAS:  This should be good.

PARENTS DEMAND MORE COPS AT TEMPLE UNIVERSITY:  No surprise there.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY (CHINA EDITION): Xi Jinping moves to silence Covid Zero critics in sign of brewing tumult. “Our pandemic prevention-and-control strategy is determined by the party’s nature and principles. Our policy can stand the test of history, and our measures are scientific and effective.”

Uh-huh.

CHARLES LIPSON:  “Today’s ‘Diversity’ Oaths Resemble 1950s ‘Loyalty’ Oaths.”  Yes, of course, they do.  Lipson writes about George Anastaplo, who refused such an oath in the 1950s and paid a price for it.

OK, GROOMERS: ‘Woke’ Target Peddling ‘Trans’ Clothing to Teens.