TWITTER AMPLIFIES ALL THE GARBAGE: Seattle Progressives explode when they heard conservatives on radio, TV.  An excellent lesson on how SJW’s abuse Twitter to “deplatform” voices with which they disagree:

“It’s such a frequent occurrence, you can script out exactly how it will unfold: 1. media outlet will feature a conservative voice; 2. one or two fringe Twitter activists will get mad and call out the media outlet; 3. their followers will retweet and send out similar messages, all within a short time span, making it seem like they’re louder in voice then they are. It’s exactly what they will do to me on Twitter today for writing this.

You know, some guy named Glenn Reynolds just published a book about this very same thing.

BUT HIS TWEETS!!! I’ve written before about the political pundit class and their absurd fear of the President’s 50 cal. Twitter gun, but sooner or later some of these dopes will realize we have it pretty f**king good here in the US. In countries where the press is under real attack, this is par for the course:

Judge Mohammad Moghiseh of Tehran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps Branch 28 court found [journalist] Kazemi guilty on national security charges of spreading misinformation and insulting the supreme leader and other Iranian officials, and sentenced him to four and a half years in prison followed by a two-year ban from working as a journalist.

He’s lucky his head is still attached to his body.

ON THE MCCAIN FAUXMENT: The irony is amazing. The same John McCain who political media ass-raped in 2008. “He can’t lift his arms to use a computer!” they mocked. (His P.O.W. injuries were never mentioned in that story.) “He had an affair with Vicky Iseman!” they bellowed. (They later “clarified” the story claiming when they said he had an affair they “didn’t really mean to imply” an affair. (The Times has since vaporized the internet archive) When on the campaign trail a woman referred to nominee Barack Obama as “an Arab,” to which John McCain responded, “No, ma’am. He’s a decent family man, a citizen.” This press slurred him “by suggesting that being Arab is at odds with being a “decent family man,” McCain made a comment that was patently Islamophobic.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m waiting to see a huge Twitter war between Trump and David Duke, just so I can read The Times tell us what a great guy David Duke is.

HOW DUMB IS THIS WASHINGTON POST REPORTER? This dumb: She repeats the canard that Trump was the “motivation” behind the tragic murders at the Capital Gazette, yet the very article she cites says expressly:

“Ramos held a long-standing grudge against the The Capital. It began with an article in the newspaper in 2011 that detailed a criminal harassment charge that a woman filed against Ramos, a former high school classmate of hers.”

Of course, this video game is objectionable, but no more so than the wildly popular “Grand Theft Auto” series, which allows players to murder sex workers and homeless people.

LEFT WING FASCISM NEVER DISAPPOINTS: “Mass. teacher accused of planting live ammo at school, then calling police.” If the facts don’t fit your narrative, then invent the facts. Remember, it’s “for the children”:

“Southbridge police said high school biology teacher Alfred Purcell III, 57, of Woodstock, Connecticut, reported to staff that he had just found one live round of 9 mm ammunition in the rear stairwell. The school was placed on lock down. During the lockdown, police and Southbridge High School staff reviewed video footage and saw Purcell removing the live round of ammunition from his pocket, dropping it on the floor and quickly leaving the area, police said.

About 10 minutes later, the video shows Purcell standing over the ammunition and taking a picture of it with a cellphone, police said.”

Like Stalin said: “If you want to make an omelette, you have to break a few eggs.”

Or as one of his current admirers put it: “I think that there’s a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually, and semantically correct than about being morally right.”

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? “Brazil to allow crime reporters to carry guns for protection” reports the UK Press Gazette. Don’t get me wrong, I think the Second Amendment says what it says and though I haven’t owned a weapon in decades, the people who want to stop you from owning one are for the most part wrong. That said, step back and think about journalists carrying sidearms. I know literally hundreds of journalists, and can count less than 10 of them who know anything about firearms. The idea of an armed Jim Acosta ought to scare anyone. And remember this guy?

The point is that I’m not really sure that arming people who think ear plugs are some sort of riot round, or that “an AR-15 “shotgun” was used in the 2013 Washington Navy Yard shooting is a really great idea.

To be sure, journalists in places like Mexico and Brazil are truly at risk, and if open carry makes them safer, I’m all for it. I just hope that the periodistas are more informed than their American counterparts. I’ve written about this at The Daily Caller.

INSTANT TROLLING: It’s true that every now and then I have fun pulling my left-leaning friends’ chains by posting something on social media guaranteed to make them foam at the mouth and wet their pants. I know, it’s a bit cruel, like taunting a puppy, but there you have it.
Soooo, I saw this graphic from The Hill today:

And I just couldn’t help asking:

“Does this mean Democrats are naturally bigoted? The two African-American and one Latino candidate are at the bottom of the polls of likely Democratic registered voters.”

Try it yourself and watch the fun.

I CAN JUST HEAR PALLYWOOD NOW: “Hey, they fought back! No fair!”

THE IRONY IS DELICIOUS (BUT SCARY): Stephen Green highlighted this earlier, but I just had to add that faux-liberals have been screaming “Russia! Russia!” since Trump’s election. “He’s doing Putin’s bidding!” Yet these very same people are all-in on shutting down websites and blogs that *they* deem “dangerous.”

Democrats doing Russia’s bidding? “The word of the day is “projection,” boys and girls. Can you say Projection”?
#OffToTheGulagMrJournalist

AN UPDATE: The Poynter Institute has (for now anyway) taken down the webpage that listed conservative-leaning websites like The Daily Signal as “fake” because they were, well, “conservative.” Backstory here.

There’s a helluva difference in writing news of interest to conservatives and writing news with a “conservative slant.” (Bumped, by Glenn).
**Update: Here’s Poynter’s statement.

CONFUSING “CONSERVATIVE” WITH FAKE: The once revered Poynter Foundation, which stood as a pillar of journalistic integrity has fallen hard, after they issued today a list of untrustworthy or “fake” news sites and included The Daily Signal, which writes straight and factual news of interest to conservatives. (Disclosure: I serve as their outside Media Law adviser).

The Daily Signal is not taking this lying down, and their editor-in-chief Katrina Trinko penned a brilliant Op/Ed in response:

“We’re sharing the story of a Border Patrol agent whose own dad came here illegally and yet still believes it’s important to keep the border secure. We’re reporting on abortion survivors, whose amazing tales belie the left’s lies that babies don’t need guaranteed medical treatment after they survive. We’re telling the incredible tale of a man who went from transgender to nonbinary to identifying as a man again—a story whose conclusion the mainstream media wouldn’t touch, despite covering his earlier transitions […] If you don’t like The Daily Signal because you don’t believe in free speech or you think conservatives should be silent or you just don’t want certain stories told or it makes you upset that we call unborn babies “babies” instead of “fetuses,” fine. It’s a free country. But to smear us as engaging in dishonest journalism is well … dishonest journalism.”

There’s a helluva difference in writing news of interest to conservatives and writing news with a “conservative slant.” The Daily Signal does the former, not the latter. I implore you to write to Neil Brown, president of the Poynter Foundation at  and ask him to fix this atrocious error.

SOMETHING FOR THE ARMCHAIR WARRIORS: “The Army of the Living’s Battle Plan Wasn’t So Bad“: Robert Farley, a visiting professor at the United States Army War College reviews the Battle of Winterfell, and says in Slate that the defenders “needed to induce a fight in order to avoid the threat of a prolonged siege.”

He also notes that although many are criticizing the choice to sacrifice the Dothraki cavalry, it made military sense because among other things:

“Team Alive knew enough about Team Dead to guess that the Dothraki faced a kind of infantry that they had never encountered before; one without fear and thus invulnerable to shock and flanking. Moreover, in the dark, the Dothraki probably could not even identify the enemy flank.”

To be honest, in the dark, I could barely recognize anyone.

IS PREPAREDNESS A PRESIDENTIAL QUALITY? So Biden appears on the inevitably fawning gabfest The View, and is tossed a softball question about the touchy stuff. To be honest, I’d like to think he’s sincere. Being 60+ years old, I’ve been called to HR for addressing a 19-year-old intern as “sweetheart” in passing — a function of my age and generational upbringing. But listen to this interview and it’s amazing to me that he was not prepared and can’t seem to string together a single coherent sentence. If he can’t see *this* coming from a group willing to love him, how would he deal with Putin?

AMERICAN GREATNESS: PERSONIFIED

REFRESHING HONESTY…FROM ROLLING STONE? I’d imagine Matt Taibbi isn’t being invited to the “right” parties anymore after his second story about The Hoax That Was Russiagate. A remarkably clear-headed read, he calls out the clueless who are actually convinced they did a good job:

[I]t’s shocking to see national media voices after the release of Robert Mueller’s report patting each other on the back, congratulating themselves for a three-year faceplant they must know will haunt the whole business for a long time.

Then Taibbi goes on to deflate the “conventional wisdom” the MSM is selling each other in terms of what the Mueller Report actually says:

You know what was fake news? Most of the Russiagate story. There was no Trump-Russia conspiracy, that thing we just spent three years chasing. The Mueller Report is crystal clear on this.

He didn’t just “fail to establish” evidence of crime. His report is full of incredibly damning passages, like one about Russian officialdom’s efforts to reach the Trump campaign after the election: “They appeared not to have preexisting contacts and struggled to connect with senior officials around the President-Elect.”

As the Good Professor says, “Read The Whole Thing.”™️

IT DEPENDS WHO YOU ARE EXPOSING: The pro-life activists who filmed a Planned Parenthood staffer negotiating the price of fetal body parts in a crowded restaurant will soon find out if they have to face trial:

First Amendment attorney Matthew Strugar predicted a liberal San Francisco jury will convict Daleiden and Merritt even if the evidence comes out in their favor – greenlighting judges to chip away at the investigative tools available to journalists. “CMP to me are despicable actors who seem to be grossly misstating what happened,” Strugar, who is not affiliated with the case, said by phone from Los Angeles. But he said the group’s undercover methods “are tried-and-true investigative techniques” long used by journalists in the United States to gather evidence of misconduct, from animal abuse on farms to auto mechanics ripping off customers.

The sad part is that the mainstream media and their lawyers — who have a lot to lose here — are avoiding fighting for the right to do this kind of undercover filming because of their liberal pro-Planned Parenthood agenda. If you’re looking for honesty and commitment to principles, the media bar ain’t what it used to be. But secret film of Mitt Romney talking about the 47% who won’t vote for him? No problem.

#NotAllMedia: “WHAT THE PRESIDENT GETS WRONG ABOUT THE PRESS.” My latest column in The Daily Caller…

“Enemy” is a strong word, and when it comes from the bully pulpit of the White House, I suspect it’s taken a little too far in these polarized times. Nonetheless, the damage to public trust in journalism — which is its lifeblood — should be laid at the feet of the political pundit class.”

Guest appearance by Andrew Klavan, who makes unsurprisingly sharp and accurate points.

WORD OF THE WEEK IS “NIMBY”: Forget the Categorical Imperative for a second. If I save a drowning person in hopes of getting a big reward, is she no less saved? It seems to me that the hubbub about Trump’s sanctuary plan is simply “we don’t like his motives.” This is the worst NIMBY I’ve seen since Ted Kennedy blocked wind energy farms off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.

It’s more than a masterstroke of trolling by Trump, it’s actually a lesson in “be careful what you ask for.” But NIMBY is old chapeau for the faux-liberals. There is no more solidly Democrat neighborhood than the People’s Republic of the Upper West Side. Yet, when the beloved “diversity” (virtuous!) was proposed for THEIR schools, these Hillarybots went markedly Galt: Said one parent: “You’re talking about telling an 11-year-old, ‘You worked your butt off and you didn’t get that, what you needed and wanted.”

I simply cannot help but be reminded of this Christopher Guest classic:

Liberal Monday: “We need sanctuary laws to ensure that immigrants can contribute to our gorgeous mosaic.”
Liberal Tuesday: NOT IN MY BACK YARD!

PEN v. TRUMP: All The President’s Riposte. In October of last year, left-leaning PEN America, a 501(c)(3) organization whose stated mission is “to ensure that people everywhere have the freedom to create literature, to convey information and ideas, to express their views, and to access the views, ideas, and literature of others” filed suit against President Trump, alleging that “The president’s conduct harms PEN America’s members by forcing them to do their work against the backdrop of credible threats of retaliation by the president.”

Late yesterday, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan filed a Motion to Dismiss the case, stating among other things that PEN does not have standing to bring the suit, and the only person alleged to have suffered harm was CNN’s Jim Acosta, but in fact Acosta voluntarily withdrew his suit against Trump after his White House credentials were reinstated. Of course, Acosta said the credentials were revoked as viewpoint discrimination because the president didn’t like his “reporting.” The White House responded (in not so many words) that his credentials were revoked for acting like a jerk in the Briefing Room.

The standing argument is pretty well-articulated, but fellow constitutionalists may wonder if the Complaint might be saved by the long-standing doctrine that a seemingly “moot” case may still be heard if it is “capable of repetition, yet evading review.” Southern Pacific Terminal Co. v. ICC, 219 U.S. 498 (1911).

If I were a betting man, I’d wager that’s going to be PEN’s reply. Other than that, the Complaint seems to be little more than “Trump is a mean old meanie.”

IRONIC HYPERBOLE ALERT: PEN’s website states that:

“While many media outlets are unrelenting in their robust coverage, individual writers may think twice before publishing pieces or commentary that could put them in the White House’s crosshairs.”

I thought “crosshairs” was a dogwhistle for violence and was considered by our moral superiors to be an uncivil use of language. Or is PEN actually saying that teams of rooftop snipers are locked in on the entrances of America’s newsrooms? When Conservatives use that word: it’s a threat. When liberals use that word it’s “mere rhetoric.” 

JUST FIGURING THIS OUT NOW, ARE THEY? The memo never got to HRC and the Brooklyn Mothership of Social Media Geeks in 2016.

SUPER FUN TIME BONUS: One more nail in the coffin for those bitter clingers who still insist Russia “stole” the election with $100,000 of Facebook ads…

JOURNALISM DEAN TEACHING HOW TO BUILD A STORY OFF A LIE: Michelle Ferrier, Dean of the School of Journalism & Graphic Communication at Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University pens an Op/Ed that starts out with a whopper:

“Violence against journalists has become routine, and attacks on social media and in real life have intensified because of the violent rhetoric coming from the White House, calling journalists “enemies of the people.””

Op/Ed or not, you’d think a “Dean of Journalism” would know better than to build her whole argument on a canard. Note the word “BECAUSE.” She has no more basis than to say that Steve Scalise was shot BECAUSE of Maxine Water’s rhetoric. Trump’s rhetoric might be heated, off-the-rails, rude or even nutty. But this is TDS at work in the journalism education industry.

HYPOCRISY, THY NAME IS TIM COOK: Apple never forgets to remind us how “woke” they are, how caring and morally enlightened they are, especially on LGBT issues. The openly gay CEO of Apple has no problem virtue signalling:

But he has a problem withdrawing Apple from OIC nations that hang people for the crime of being gay. (Four stores in Brunei alone!) Not on the list of companies boycotting Brunei. Apple’s Investor Relations team would love to hear from you, I’m sure.

REPEAT A LIE OFTEN ENOUGH: Granted, Variety Magazine is hardly the stuff of insightful or particular detailed reporting, but using Christine Amanpour as a springboard to repeat a canard is pretty low. Being a Hollywood-based publication, it’s not surprising how a sly but false anti-Trump innuendo would show up:

“To Amanpour, it’s no surprise that violence against journalists has grown. This is a world where the man with the biggest bully pulpit of them all, President Trump, actually uses it to bully, denouncing the news media as the “enemy of the people.” Last year, a gunman killed five people in the newsroom of Maryland’s Capital Gazette, propelling the U.S. into a tie with Mexico as the fourth-deadliest country for journalists.”

That’s all fine and dandy…except it’s a strawman: The shooter had in fact targeted the staff members over a long-running feud with the newspaper that stemmed over a 2012 defamation lawsuit. Even Reuters was forced to discipline an editor who repeated the talking point.

WAITAMINNIT, WAITAMINNIT, WHAT? The New York Post reports that “The New Boss” is complaining about the cost of croissants at LaGuardia Airport. Forget the cost of croissants, what the hell is she doing at an airport? Why isn’t she taking Amtrak? After all, in demanding the cessation of air travel she said:

“We’re like, ‘The world is going to end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change,’ and, like, this is the war; this is our World War II.”

Would that make her a Vidkun Quisling or a Pierre Laval?
#Nomenklatura