AS KENT BROCKMAN WOULD SAY: “I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.”

REWRITING YOUR HISTORY: One of the genuine problems with overbroad efforts to scale back libel defenses is that we may open up the opportunity for wealthy or “connected” people to completely rewrite history.

Background: There are more than a few bold-faced names who regularly threaten or file libel suits if your story does not paint them in the light in which they want to be seen. The Church of Scientology is a good example.

In my own personal experience, convicted felon Michael Milken sends in lawyers and spin-doctors every time he is referred to as “The Junk Bond King.” They all insisted to me that he is better known as a “philanthropist.” I suppose if you are paid enough to say that, you start to believe it.

Similarly, publishing magnate Conrad Black tried to ruin my weekend when one of our stories described — from court records, no less — his conviction on charges of felony fraud and obstruction of justice. He pushed the “lawyer” button, of course. To be fair, he was pardoned, but that does not erase the courtroom history of a mentally competent adult man who made the choices he did.

I once had the pleasure of responding to a complaint from Bill Ford, when our magazine piece mentioned the horrifically anti-semitic background of Henry Ford and the The Dearborn Independent. No matter how gently or fairly one describes the man’s history, there’s simply no getting around it. 

And now to the present. Gerry Adams of IRA and Irish political fame is suing the BBC because in 2016 it broadcast an allegation that Adams had been consulted on, and sanctioned, the 2006 murder of Denis Donaldson, a former Sinn Fein official who was revealed to have been a paid agent working for British intelligence. Reported by The Times of London, the writer says:

“There is no need to take a view on the Donaldson case, however, to appreciate that Adams is once again engaged in the wholesale rewriting of history. This is made clear by his own lawyer’s comments to the effect that Adams’s reputation has been grievously damaged by the Donaldson allegation, because, look, “Gerry Adams’ reputation is that of a peacemaker. It has taken Gerry Adams a lifetime to gain that reputation.”

Now, realize, this case is proceeding under Irish law, which is far less forgiving of a false and defamatory statement than that of our First Amendment. It’s always possible (especially as an EU member) that the Irish court recognizes a “public interest defense.”

In either event, the case may be a barometer for what could happen here if we were to adopt looser libel defenses.

Morally, I have no problem with eliminating blatant falsehoods, but the wrong decision may allow the elite to airbrush history going forward.

Worth keeping an eye on. 

**Typo fixed, thanks to eagle-eyed reader**

I HAD THIS ON MY FACEBOOK PAGE THIS EVENING:

See the double dodge here? The AP does a little fluffy piece on what “86” means. And the chatter is that Comey — God’s gift to law enforcement — had to know what it means.

But see, the real whopper gets assumed away, missed or ignored. His Comeyness says: “I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk….”

Who in their right mind believes that he “just came across” this?

AP’s story at link below:

The old slang term ’86′ probably started as restaurant-worker jargon. Suddenly it’s in the news.

HOW COULD ANYBODY TELL? Living in a bedroom community in Northern New Jersey just outside NYC, I used to be held captive by the incredibly random, um, “service” (yes, those are scare quotes) of NJTransit. So when the engineers go on strike, can we really tell the difference?

SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION: I’ll be a guest tonight on “The Winers” where we enjoy a tasty beverage and talk about…anything, I suppose. Starts at 7PM EST, and linkable all over the place. This is part of my progress to making my own show. This is right up Insta-readers’ alley, and your support is valuable. Did I mention it’s free?
https://www.facebook.com/events/1198147255096492
https://rumble.com/v6tee27-the-winers-ep.-34-streams-live…
https://www.youtube.com/live/naFZoQ8qmx8?si=r67N9g-2862L4JLD
https://x.com/RealScottRitter
https://ustourofduty.org/live/
https://www.twitch.tv/ustourofduty
https://ustourofduty.locals.com/…/6932679/the-winers-ep-34

WATCH THIS LEGISLATOR RUN HEAD FIRST INTO A BRICK WALL OF LOGIC.

DON’T LET LEGACY MEDIA MEMORY-HOLE JAMES HODGKINSON: I couldn’t find a word about this from the dead-tree media, but Just the News is reporting that a Congressional report released this morning says:

“The FBI “misled the public” for years in claiming a sniper’s attempt to kill Republican congressmen at a June 2017 baseball practice was “suicide by cop”, when it was in fact domestic terrorism, according to a new congressional report released Tuesday.”

Gee, you’d think an official report from the House Intelligence Committee might get their attention.

But I guess if it isn’t about Hegseth following Biden’s tradition of using third-party apps, or if it inconveniently exposes the narrative of “those GOP people are violent” then it’s not “All the fits that’s news to print.”™

I’m no psychologist, but doesn’t the Hodgkinson matter — a self-described “Bernie Bro” — show that it’s always projection?

WHY NEW MEDIA IS WINNING: JustTheNews is a straightforward news site, and not surprisingly, the basement-dwellers at Wikipedia (often the go-to grazing spot for legacy media and their scripted narratives) smear them as “right-wing.”

The fact is that many New Media outlets (like The Daily Caller and The Daily Signal) don’t slant the news: They report on facts and issues of interest to center-right readers traditionally and intentionally ignored and insulted by the Dinosaur Media. That cadre has left a legacy of genuine propaganda and genuine disinformation:

• Laptop? What laptop? 51 “experts” say it’s Russian disinfo.
• Biden was “sharp as a tack” until he wasn’t, and then, “we were badly misled.”
• Trump and Musk often give crowds a Nazi salute.
• Biden never got involved in Hunter’s crooked business dealings.
• “Very fine people.”
• Putin has embarrasing info which he uses to extort Trump.
• Kamala Harris’ loss was a result of racism and misogyny.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg that sank the Titanic of legacy media.

Of course, the MSM can’t get it though their heads that they are completely out of touch with the majority of Americans. After all, many Trump voters actually work with their hands (how disgusting!), don’t have advanced degrees from “institutions of higher education” and “cling to their guns and Bibles.”

Personally, even though I own neither, I find this particularly elitist, paternalist and outright offensive. I’ll never forgive Obama and his media stenographers for that, and I don’t care how sharply creased his trousers are.

So basically, the MSM line is “we’re smarter than you, your vote doesn’t really count, and by the way, ‘Shut up’.”

An anecdote: When I was running legal for Bloomberg News, one of our reporters in D.C. discovered that the ATF screwed up on a gun-running sting that resulted in providing a weapon  used to murder a U.S. border security officer. He had it before anyone else.

In casual conversation, the reporter told me the story had been spiked by big-shot editors in D.C. I tried to help the reporter break what I thought was a “Holy Sh*t!” story. When I rang the well-known and very influential editor to look into it, he simply said: “Oh, nobody wants to read that.”

Really? “Fast and Furious,” much?

The bottom line is that whether you disagree with Trump’s policies, or even dislike the man himself (which of course is your God-given right to do so) there’s no getting around that fact that Trump is (to quote Scott Adams or Andrew Klavan, I can’t remember which) a “GrandMaster-level troll” and knows how to get media to chase a laser pointer like a herd of cats.

Trump’s recognition of “New Media” and giving them a seat in the White House Briefing Room and the pool that covers the White House was a genius move. Of course, the MSM lost their minds, and forgot their supposed dedication to the First Amendment’s protection for speech that might upset others. It’s a safe bet that Joy Reid, Rachael Maddow and the others never read (or conveniently forget)  Near v. Minnesota, or even Fred Friendly’s “Minnesota Rag.”

So, what does “winning” look like? IMHO, have a look at this story by Just The News, who in conjunction with Real America’s Voice, hosted a two-day American Border Heroes Awards ceremony, recognizing the tragic impact of illegal immigrant’ felonies on Amercan families. The story gave voice to some of the “Angel” families’ stories:

“Chris Odette is a veteran whose 13-year-old daughter Chrishia was killed in 2014 by Ramiro Guevara, an illegal alien from Mexico. Guevara was behind the wheel of a car that ran over the little girl while she was crossing a street. Guevara did not have a driver’s license, and after killing the child, spent all of 35 minutes behind bars before being allowed to post a cash bond.

Guevara was released, and it took Odette more than ten years to get Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to finally make the effort to track down and apprehend Guevara. ICE, under the Obama Administration, reportedly did not cooperate with Odette’s search for information about the driver of the car that took his daughter’s life.”

Check teh Interwebs and I double-dog dare you to find coverage about the issue in The New York Times. My cursory search came up with nothing but stories sympathetic to the immigrants, with a sub-text that the criminals were the real victims.

Of course, I’d rigorously defend the NYT‘s right to publish such stories, but the absence of any semblance of balance or completeness is — as a matter of journalistic ethics or even quality — bordering on negligence. It even makes me wonder about (to borrow Justice Brennan’s phrase in Times v. Sullivan inspired by the Kansas case of Coleman v. MacLennan) “purposeful avoidance of the truth.”

Truth? Feh, that’s so old fashioned and not cool.

Can you imagine a universe in which The Guardian, MSNBC, or NPR would ever report on this in anything but a derogatory way? I can’t.

Moreover, can you imagine MSM actually supporting scholarships for Angel families?

Nope. 

**Disclosure: I provide legal and editorial consulting work for Just The News, The Daily Caller and The Daily Signal. 

BREAKING NEWS: “Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared a three-day ceasefire in its war against Ukraine, from May 8-11, calling for Kiev to agree to it, according to the Kremlin.”
More at JustTheNews.

THE ECHOES OF “CATCH AND RELEASE”: It turns out that “loving father and husband” Kilmar Abrego Garcia isn’t the poor victim the legacy media wants you to think he is. JustTheNews exposes this guy’s history:

“The deported El Salvadoran man at the center of an intense court battle was flagged in 2022 by the Biden administration as a “suspect alien” who was possibly involved in “human smuggling/trafficking” after a traffic stop hundreds of miles from his Maryland home, according to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents reviewed by Just the News.”

The details show that during a routine traffic stop, the van Garcia was driving was full of people with no documentation, and the state trooper noted there was no luggage in the vehicle, leading the encountering officer to suspect this was a human trafficking incident.

But wait, there’s more:

“On Wednesday, DHS released a court filing showing that Abrego Garcia’s wife sought a domestic violence restraining order against him a year before the traffic stop in May 2021 […] Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the deported El Salvadoran man at the center of an historic immigration case, admitted to authorities in 2019 when he was first detained that he entered the United States illegally and had no basis for seeking asylum […] Separate records released by Attorney General Pam Bondi show Abrego Garcia admitted to authorities in 2019 when he was first detained that he entered the United States illegally and had no basis for seeking asylum and that Maryland police positively identified him as member of the MS-13 criminal gang.”

Victimhood can be profitable, though:

“A “Go Fund Me” crowdsourcing campaign was reportedly set up by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), a charity that claims to provide assistance to immigrant workers. NDLON is partly funded through the left-wing ActBlue Charities, and their Facebook page displays images comparing ICE agents to Nazis capturing Jews. As of press time, the campaign has raised almost $200,000.”

THIS JUST IN: JustTheNews is reporting that the federal government’s main housing loan agency has referred New York Attorney General Letitia James to the U.S. Justice Department for possible prosecution over alleged mortgage fraud.

More to come, I’m sure.

OK, WHO’S BRINGING THE POPCORN? Reuters is reporting that Sarah Palin and the New York Times are headed back to a courtroom where the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate will try convincing a second jury the newspaper defamed her in an editorial about gun control.

My sentiments here.

THIS WILL PROBABLY GET BURIED: Many people have asked what was in the “manifesto” written by the “Covenant School Nashville transgender shooter.” Just the News has it:

“Being white sucks, but being black is so cool. Black people should rule. White people should fall, every white person who lived and died. I hate you all,” Hale wrote, per the New York Post. “I hate the American people. America is not the land of the free, it’s a land full of idiots. It will only get worse in this country, not near enough gods like me. America and its people all destined to soon be destroyed.”

It remains to be seen if legacy media bothers to report this at all…but I’m not holding my breath.

UPDATE (From Ed): Hannibal Lecktor*, call your office:

* That’s how the character’s name was spelled in his first onscreen appearance, played by Brian Cox, in Michael Mann’s chilling Manhunter from 1986.

THIS JUST IN: Hunter Biden agrees to give up law license in Washington DC. Just the News is reporting that:

“Former first son Hunter Biden has agreed to give up his law license in Washington, D.C., according to an affidavit that was unsealed by the Board on Professional Responsibility on Tuesday.”

The DC Bar docs can be found here.

THIS MIGHT LEAVE A MARK: I’m not privy to all the facts here, so I won’t pre-judge it. But I’ll tell you this: Former RNC Chief of Staff Chris LaCivita is suing The Daily Beast for defamation, and he is being represented by Harmeet Dhillon’s firm.

I’d take this very seriously, given (1) the DB’s track record of (IMHO, of course) irresponsible gossip-mongering and a “mission” to insult Trump and people living in “flyover states”; and (2) Dhillon is a certified bad@ss.

Your mileage may vary, take only as directed, and if condition persists see a doctor.

PERHAPS THEY CAN TRY MARKETING A “LIBERAL TEARS” FLAVOR: I found this amusing story somewhat underreported. It appears that:

“Ben & Jerry’s infamously woke CEO has been fired by the ice cream company’s fed-up parent company Unilever. David Stever was booted on March 3 after Unilever bosses grew tired of Ben & Jerry’s advocating for divisive progressive causes like Black Lives Matters, DEI, defunding the police and Palestinian rights.”

Here’s the best part… 

“Ben & Jerry’s remaining bosses have now filed a lawsuit accusing the parent company of firing Stever for his political activism.”

Hmm, so many similes from which to choose…”biting the hand that feeds you,” “pissing in the company water cooler,” “choosing the wrong hill upon which to die” or maybe even “circular firing squad?”

How about just autophagy?

THIS ONE IS A BIT OF AN ODDBALL: Normally, under Florida Star v BJF, I’d agree with telling the opposing counsel to go pound sand. But in this wrinkle, the media filed (and was granted) a Motion to Intervene, and as such, I think by doing so, they submit to the courts’ jurisdiction if a Motion to Compel is filed and granted. Then comes the fun and games of trying to get an immediate — almost interlocutory — appeal and request for a stay.

“During that meeting, the lawyer inadvertently sent the reporter unreacted versions of the confidential documents. When they’d realized the error, the attorney demanded The Oregonian to return or destroy the documents, but the newspaper refused.“

What say you? Will we see a replay of Bankers Trust v. Procter & Gamble? There “somebody”  “leaked” the inadvertently disclosed documents to a third-party publisher who was not an intervenor.

Who says CivPro is no fun?

BREAKING NEWS: Just the News reporting that:

“Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley on Friday sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, revealing that the bureau allegedly obtained the cellphones of President Donald Trump and his former Vice President Mike Pence.”

Remember when the phrase “deep state” or as Tucker calls it, “Permanent Washington” were so easily dismissed as a conspiracy theory? I have a (good) feeling those days are getting fewer and far between.

**Update: JTN dialed back the original lede and changed above. Originally said “listened in” but changed to show that they simply obtained the cellphones.

EXCERPT FROM A PERSONAL EMAIL: I got a ranting screed from a hardcore Dem pal, a great guy but totally unhinged when it comes to All Things Trump. His daughter apparently lost her dream job when the company folded b/c of the tariffs and trade regs w/r/t China. Apparently the company was wholly reliant on China.

At the risk of sounding cold-hearted, I sent him the note below. Real friends will tell you what you think they need to hear, not only what they want to hear:

Dear [XXX]:

Of course it’s not good that your daughter lost her dream job. But to be 100% honest, investing one’s life in a company that relies wholly on business with CCP is not a good choice. Never was. She chose poorly.

I do a lot of editorial work on this subject, and I have to tell you the CCP (which controls every major Chinese enterprise) are a very bad, no good, inhumane bunch. Even the NIH has something to say about it.

Interestingly, a large portion of my NYU students are FOTB Chinese. In my History of Journalism class, when I get to the section on cable news, I show them the video clip of this:

Only about 1/3 of the Chinese students had ever seen or heard of Tiananmen Square, and they only learned about it while in other countries. The subject is completely unfindable in any Chinese platform or outlet, and people who share this in China are subject to immediate arrest and often, made to disappear.

So, at the end of the day, from a moral perspective, in some ways, your daughter is better off. If she got a fabulous job with I.G. Farben in 1939 developing Zyklon B, and then lost her job…what would you say?

I know, people break long-time relationships taking the world too seriously. I could only end with this.

RESISTANCE? IGNORANCE? PERHAPS WE SHOULD EMBRACE THE POWER OF “AND.” Apparently Letitia James did not get the memo (or likely ignored it). So I get this job ad in my mailbox…

Special Counsel for Executive Division: Focus is Advancing LGBTQIA Rights

“The Special Counsel will collaborate with teams across OAG to analyze federal policy and lead responses to federal actions that threaten LGBTQIA people and communities; combat discrimination against LGBTQIA New Yorkers in education, healthcare, public accommodations, housing, employment, and other contexts using federal, state, and local laws; enhance relationships with organizations serving LGBTQIA communities; and engage in and supervise affirmative and defensive litigation in federal and state courts.”

All I can say is I’m rooting for Pam Bondi.

I’M NOT SURE WHAT TO MAKE OF THIS: San Francisco (Yay!) asked the Supreme Court (Boo!) if they can be allowed to dump sewage. Um…is that a “Yay” or a “Boo”?
Or is CNN’s headline editor headline writer misreading the case?

Anything is possible.

IT TOOK LONG ENOUGH: Hidden behind paywall, but The WSJ has an interesting article about reintroducing shop class in schools. IIRC, Glenn and others have mentioned that most Gen-X and Z’ers don’t even know how to change a tire.

I was at an AutoZone recently to replace an oil filter wrench. The kid gave me the “deer in the headlights” look, and just went to his checkout computer screen to see what I was talking about.

“Have you ever changed oil in a car?” I asked.
You get three guesses at what his response was, and the first two guesses don’t count.

MY “SHOCKED FACE” IS GETTING A WORKOUT: BBC review finds ‘serious flaws’ over Gaza documentary:

“The BBC has apologised and admitted “serious flaws” in the making of a documentary about children’s lives in Gaza. The documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone, was pulled from iPlayer last week after it emerged its 13-year-old narrator was the son of a Hamas official.”

Journalists and make-believe journalists — especially in the documentary/investigative space — need to learn to vet their sources first. And editors need to hold the creators’ feet to the fire on this. Clearly not a happening thing for the BBC.

JUDITH MILLER’S EXCELLENT TAKE ON THE SEPTEMBER 1972 MASSACRE OF ISRAELI OLYMPIANS. Well worth reading.

EVERYTHING I LEARNED IN LIFE CAME FROM ANIMAL HOUSE: Just The News reporting that:

“Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday night announced that the Justice Department is expected to release more information about alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein on Thursday, including his flight logs.”

I’ve heard they’d done some major redactions, but you know that certain limousine liberals will be very nervous today. As to the reference in this headline:
Boy is this great!