ED MORRISSEY: Rathergate redux at the NYT?

Ahem. Put aside the characterization of [Ben] Barnes’ “credibility” in light of the Rathergate episode. Baker’s argument essentially boils down to this: Barnes is accusing Ronald Reagan of malfeasance and advancing a conspiracy theory with no evidence whatsoever after not saying anything for forty-three years, but he has no reason to lie. And the only other source with any connection to the incidents I can find says it never happened.

Is that journalism?

Or is that narrative building?

It’s too bad Brian Stelter is no longer at CNN — Barnes and Dan Rather could appear side by side on “Reliable Sources” to put the band back together again!

THAT’S WHAT XI SAID! TikTok lands first major ally on Capitol Hill: Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman.

For an app that boasts 150 million American users, TikTok has had virtually no allies on Capitol Hill to fight back against the growing movement to ban it. That appears to be changing.

The Chinese-owned platform has won over Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a New York Democrat, who is scheduled to host a press conference Wednesday at the Capitol alongside dozens of TikTok content creators to make the case for protecting the app in the U.S.

In an interview Tuesday, Bowman staunchly defended TikTok and denounced legislation to ban the app, rejecting arguments about its dangers as “fearmongering” and saying he hasn’t seen evidence that China is using it for espionage.

“This is a space where these creators have found a platform to share their ideas, their inspirations, their thoughts, their voices with the rest of the country and the rest of the world. And why do we want to take that away?” Bowman told NBC News. “Why do we need to ban a platform that 150 million Americans now use?”

Flashback: TikTok May Be A Chinese Superweapon.

DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: The FBI raided a notable journalist’s home. Rolling Stone didn’t tell readers why.

The Rolling Stone story created a stir. Reporter Tatiana Siegel stated that the April 22 raid was “quite possibly, the first” carried out by the Biden administration on a journalist.

In this case, the journalist was ABC News national security producer James Gordon Meek. A former investigator for the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, Meek had been with ABC News since 2013. He also was a producer of 3212 Un-Redacted, an investigative documentary that streamed on Hulu.

As published, the Rolling Stone article’s first two paragraphs lionized Meek’s record and swashbuckling style.

“Meek appears to be on the wrong side of the national-security apparatus,” it stated.

As the story noted, Siegel’s sources told her “federal agents allegedly found classified information on Meek’s laptop during their raid.” Siegel reported that Meek left his job at ABC after the raid; a publishing contract with Simon & Schuster evaporated.

As edited by Rolling Stone Editor-in-Chief Noah Shachtman, however, the article omitted a key fact that Siegel initially intended to include: Siegel had learned from her sources that Meek had been raided as part of a federal investigation into images of child sex abuse, something not publicly revealed until last month.

Why did Rolling Stone suggest Meek was targeted for his coverage of national security, rather than something unrelated to his journalism?

Why indeed? “It sounds like Rolling Stone’s editor in chief deliberately buried the truth about the sex abuse allegations against Meek because the two of them were friendly. Meek looks really bad, obviously. But so does Noah Shachtman. And so does Rolling Stone. And it’s not like Rolling Stone has a whole lot of credibility to spare.”

UPDATE: Rolling Stone Magazine Faces New Journalism Scandal After Misleading Readers in a Big Way.

This is not the first time Rolling Stone has abused and discarded facts about a major story in order to (possibly) push an agenda. The magazine landed in serious hot water several years ago after publishing a “bombshell” report about a gang rape on the University of Virginia campus. That “bombshell,” though, turned out to be entirely fabricated.

That story led to a major defamation case against the magazine. They were found guilty, and the resulting damages ultimately resulted in the sale of the magazine.

Of course, the magazine has a well-known leftward bent, more recently calling Democrat Joe Manchin a destroyer of worlds and attacking ivermectin during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Flashback: Sticky Fingers: A New Biography Explores the Seedier Side of Jann Wenner.

(Updated and bumped.)

ANOTHER UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Who do I trust more, the FBI or Rolling Stone? More like who do I trust less.

BREAKING: Update on Possible Date for Trump Indictment.

GUT FEELINGS: Immune system cells in the gut linked to stress-induced depression.

ROGER KIMBALL: China’s ‘Peace Plan’ for Ukraine Could Pave the Way for Russian Aggression.

As far as I know, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has yet to express a judgment about “China’s Position on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis,” but he can’t be pleased about a peace plan that essentially rectifies Russia’s absorption of various bits of Ukraine while giving Putin respite from fighting in order to catch his breath and rearm.

Zelenskyy will have an opportunity to make his views known soon when he and Xi have their scheduled talk.

Some observers believe he may acquiesce to something like China’s plan.

Ukraine has so far lost somewhere north of 120,000 men, fewer than Russia, but proportionality much more.

Then there’s the fact that the war has been entirely on Ukraine’s soil.

The toll on Ukrainian infrastructure has been steep.

Everyone expects Ukraine to mount some sort of counter-offensive in the spring—which began on March 20—but few observers believe that Ukraine can prevail absent massive aid from the West.

Will that aid be forthcoming?

Opinions differ.

I doubt it.

But how would we know? How to win the war that everyone is losing. “Zelensky, the Western media’s hero of liberal democracy, has banned political opposition. That may be understandable, if still lamentable, in wartime. But who will hold his government accountable after the war? The aim of any war is a superior postwar order. If the White House or global democracy gurus such as Anne Applebaum and Francis Fukuyama can’t offer a credible postwar scenario, we should assume this war will end like most of our others since the dying days of the Cold War.”

SEEMS REASONABLE: Fighting VPN criminalization should be Big Tech’s top priority, activists say: Iranian authorities increasingly targeting VPNs is part of a global trend.

The thing is, Big Tech sees itself as a partner to autocracy, not a foe thereof.

NEWS YOU CAN USE:

● Woke Crazy: Whites Who Drink Coffee Are Racists.

● Is the word ‘picnic’ racist? How to deal with questions about language right now.

● L.A. Times: driving your car is racist.

● Are helicopters racist? The LA Times thinks so.

UPDATE: Here’s a hilarious thread of 28 everyday things that have now been labeled racist.

(Updated and bumped.)

FIGHTING VAINLY THE OLD ENNUI: France’s Existential Crisis. “That old saw about democracies only lasting until people figuring out they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury is largely right, and in this, as in so many, many things, Eurocratic elites have decided the peasants simply can’t be allowed to derail the plans of their illustrious betters.”

OH, THAT LIBERAL FASCISM: Fauci Said He Must ‘Break’ Republican Vaccine Hesitancy in 2021 Video.

SHOT: Losing My Religion? Reflections on falling away from unbridled tech-optimism.

Chaser: Will advanced AI result in new religions?

Neil McArthur, the Director of the Center for Professional and Applied Ethics, at the University of Manitoba, writes this over on StudyFinds:

We are about to witness the birth of a new kind of religion. In the next few years, or perhaps even months, we will see the emergence of sects devoted to the worship of artificial intelligence (AI).

The latest generation of AI-powered chatbots, trained on large language models, have left their early users awestruck — and sometimes terrified — by their power. These are the same sublime emotions that lie at the heart of our experience of the divine.

People already seek religious meaning from very diverse sources. There are, for instance, multiple religions that worship extra-terrestrials or their teachings.

As these chatbots come to be used by billions of people, it is inevitable that some of these users will see the AIs as higher beings. We must prepare for the implications.

Arthur C. Clarke, call your office! “In a prescient 1963 article, Clarke mentions a future situation where a scientist creates the ultimate computer. He powers the machine up and asks it a question humans have been asking since the dawn of creation: ‘Is there a God?’ The computer, after checking that its power source is independent of human controls, replies, ‘There is now.’”

GRUESOME AND SAD: ‘I Just Want to Feel Like Myself,’ Tearfully Admits America’s Most Famous ‘Trans Kid’ Jazz Jennings.

READER FAVORITE: Hey Dude Men’s Wally Shoes, Multiple Colors. #CommissionEarned

JEFFREY CARTER: More On The Bailout: What If It Was The Right Move?

In principle, I am against bailing out banks. As I said in prior blogs, totally against it in 2008. In principle, I am against the bailout of Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature Bank or any bank. Bankruptcy courts exist, and they are a great disinfectant.

However, I also agree with economist Art Laffer of Laffer Curve fame that a customer who deposits money into a bank shouldn’t have to engage in a credit check on that bank and continue to do due diligence on its financial health while they have money deposited there.

It’s easy to make political points against the banks because of the things they donated to, what their websites looked like, and who was on their Boards of Directors. It’s also easy to demonize the bailouts as bailing out rich VCs. VCs most certainly were bailed out. . . .

It’s a big deal. It’s also a total abject failure of risk management at all regional banks and we ought to know why that is the case. Why are they using the Alfred E. Neumann School of Risk management to hedge their portfolios?

Because there are no consequences for doing so?

MARGOT CLEVELAND: Grants Reveal Federal Government’s Horrific Plans To Censor All Americans’ Speech. “The federal government has awarded more than 500-plus contracts or grants related to ‘misinformation’ or ‘disinformation’ since 2020. One predominant area of research pushed by the Department of Defense involves the use of AI and ML technology to monitor or listen to internet ‘conversations.'”

IT CAN REPLICATE: The genie escapes: Stanford copies the ChatGPT AI for less than $600.

PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD: Professor Who Questioned Systemic Racism Sues the University That Fired Him.

BET YOU DIDN’T KNOW THIS: Philadelphia Flyers hockey star Ivan Proporov made headlines recently when he refused to wear a jersey paying tribute to the LGBQT Woke agenda. That decision earned him some bench-time and a wave of critical headlines.

You likely heard about all of that, but Issues & Insights today informs us of a key fact that you won’t hear reported by the Mainstream Media – Sales of Proporov’s jersey skyrocketed as news of his decision spread. And a couple of other NHL teams decided not to don the jersey, as did San Jose Sharks goalie James Reimer did the same thing. Reimer got a royal reaming in the media as his reward.

Observes I&I:

“Imagine, though, the uproar from the political left if players wore warmup jerseys with Christian and Jewish symbols, or Joseph Smith Church of the Latter Day Saints jerseys. It’s a minor miracle that Antifa and other violent extremists haven’t crashed teams’ military appreciation nights.

“Western culture has come to be dominated by bullies who are ever eager to force conformity on others and to validate their status as ‘the elite.’ They get a sick thrill from being free to intimidate anyone who doesn’t agree with their narrative to the point they control them. This is not the foundation of healthy culture but a sign of declining civilization. We are becoming a grotesque monster with little resemblance to a free society.”

YOU WILL BE MADE TO CARE: OSU requires DEI statements from mechanical, aerospace engineer job applicants.

GREAT NEWS FOR THE FUTURE OF 3D PRINTED GUNS: By cracking a metal 3D-printing conundrum, researchers propel the technology toward widespread application.

TRUE SINCE AT LEAST 2020 AND PROBABLY GOING BACK TO OCCUPY WALL STREET: In Philadelphia, It Turns Out That Rioting Can Be Fun and Profitable.

PROBABLY A ROGUE AI BEHIND IT: Los Angeles neighborhood flooded with mystery Uber Eats deliveries. “Some of the recipients said they tried calling the phone numbers listed on the orders, but they were all out of service. They noted the pre-paid orders always included a tip for the driver.”

YOU WILL BE MADE TO CONFORM: California Hospital Refuses Transplant Surgery for Unvaccinated Woman With End-Stage Kidney Disease.

SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: Sharing a bed with pets may disrupt sleep.

THE SOROS DIRTY TRICKS DEPARTMENT: Mark Levin SHREDS ‘Soros Prosecutor’ Alvin Bragg Over Possible Trump Indictment.