UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES? NEVER HEARD OF ‘EM: The Lawfareblog raises “Uncomfortable Questions in the Wake of Russia Indictment 2.0 and Trump’s Press Conference With Putin.” It’s a long read, but asks questions those howling “treason!” ought to consider. A few good questions (among others):

“How will the United States respond when Russia and China and Iran start naming and indicting U.S. officials?…There is a lot of anger against WikiLeaks and a lot of support for indicting Julian Assange and others related to WikiLeaks for their part in publishing the information stolen by the Russians.  If Mueller goes in this direction, he will need to be very careful not to indict Assange for something U.S. journalists do every day.

Remember, “The 1980’s called and they want their foreign diplomacy back.”

RECONNAISSANCE PLANE? Perhaps they have no word in Arabic. “Palestinian sources said that an Israeli reconnaissance plane bombed the building…”
Boo freaking hoo.

“WHAT DO TRUMP AND WATERS HAVE IN COMMON WITH OZZY OSBOURNE AND TUPAC SHAKUR?” My weekly column is up at The Daily Caller.

SLIGHT UPDATE ON THE YALEBABIES: So I’ve been locked away in depositions for the past two days, and catching up, I read The Professor’s post about the frazzled letter of protest against the nomination of ̶H̶i̶t̶l̶e̶r̶  Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Not a very impressive list of signatories, except for one in particular: “Charles U. Farley, YLS ‘04”. Now that’s a lawyer’s lawyer.

WHAT DO THE PUNTERS IN THE UK KNOW THAT THE NEW YORK TIMES DOESN’T? Have a look at UK betting parlor Paddy Power’s odds on the Nobel Prize. I predict exploding heads.

NO SH*T, SHERLOCK: ABC News suggests to avoid forgetting your child in a hot car to “Leave a purse or important item you will need in the backseat (something like your phone, a purse, or even a shoe).”

Something important. I’m just gonna leave that out there.

GOD BLESS AMERICA: 

MORE FACEBOOK FAIL: So hiring SJW’s to filter out “hate speech” didn’t work out, but poor Zuckerberg doesn’t realize if you let the same dopes write your filtering algorithms, stupid things happen. Like banning parts of the Declaration of Independence. Reason reports that:

Since June 24, the Liberty County Vindicator of Liberty County, Texas, has been sharing daily excerpts from the declaration in the run up to July Fourth. The idea was to encourage historical literacy among the Vindicator’s readers. The first nine such posts of the project went up without incident. “But part 10,” writes Vindicator managing editor Casey Stinnett, “did not appear. Instead, The Vindicator received a notice from Facebook saying that the post ‘goes against our standards on hate speech.'”

Programmers have a saying: “Garbage In, Garbage Out.”

Related (From Ed): Facebook slammed for ‘censorship’ of country group’s patriotic song. “Facebook has been slammed by The Wes Cook Band for preventing the country group from using the social network’s paid tools to promote its song ‘I Stand for the Flag.'”

NPR SAYS “MAGA” TWEET A FAKE: 24 hours after posting and going viral, NPR finally responded to inquiries and says it was a fake, also adding that Boise police never said the stabbist was yelling “Maga!”

MEDIA JUMPS THE GUN AGAIN: You’d think that after Reuters editor and others immediately — and wildly incorrectly — linked Trump to the newspaper shooting in Annapolis, that they’d have learned a lesson. You’d be wrong. NPR just couldn’t help themselves. (Flushed down the memory hole, of course).

It’s almost as if they had no duty to investigate.

***UPDATE: NPR NOW SAYING TWEET WAS FAKE, 24 HOURS AFTERWARDS. As for me, I sourced the screen shot from several places, and constantly checked (several times) and queried NPR who did not respond prior to my posting. I don’t believe my post was an “endorsement” but if I led people to that conclusion with imprecise language I was wrong.

A MOTION FROM THE FLOOR: “Proposed that anyone who reposts or quotes “Occupy Democrats” be blocked and reported to Facebook for spreading “fake news” and/or “hate speech.”
DO I HAVE A SECOND ON THE MOTION?

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jarrod-ramos-annapolis-shooting-suspect-identified-maryland-shooting-capital-gazette-today-2018-06-28/

**Update: Reuters editor showed his true colors, but credit to EIC Adler who shot it down:
https://www.reuters.com/article/rpb-62818statement/june-28-statement-from-steve-adler-editor-in-chief-reuters-regarding-rob-cox-tweet-idUSKBN1JP039

HERE’S A DOLLAR, BUY A CLUE: The Columbia Journalism Review pushed a piece today that says “Facebook and Twitter still trying to convince conservatives they aren’t biased.” The story goes on to say that the social media and data business giants are “bending over backwards”:

“That accusation keeps coming up, and both Facebook and Twitter seem almost desperate to prove it’s not the case, to the point where they keep meeting with conservative groups and Trump supporters in an attempt to show good faith. This process is fraught with complications, however, since a) it’s not clear right-wing critics actually have a case for making such a claim, and b) bending over backwards to prove they aren’t biased has blown up in Facebook’s face in the not-so-distant past, and in the process arguably made the situation worse.”

IMHO, this is utter rubbish, in fact misses what’s really going on. Nowhere does either Facebook, Google or the CJR ask about other practices many Instapundit readers have experienced: unfounded removal of “offensive” material; shadow-banning;  or account suspension (known as “Facebook jail”).

Until Facebook, Twitter and the media who write about them stop and address what’s going on, the companies are going to plunge into a death spiral, and the media critics who fail to see shadow-banning as a real problem (or even know about it) are going to become less and less trusted or relevant.

It’s as if the Titanic were taking on water and the Captain is boasting about how nice the table settings look.

IS THE FIRST AMENDMENT AN EXCUSE FOR SLOPPY, AWFUL JOURNALISM? My column at The Daily Caller this week walks through the reason so many news outfits “get away” with egregious errors:

Let us stipulate that Paul Manafort is a bad man. A terrible man. The worst kind of man. If you are an unhinged #resist lunatic like Rep. Adam Schiff, you believe that Manafort helped the Russians deprive Hillary Clinton of her rightful crown at the cost of our electoral process. Even if all that were true, why did ABC News run an on-air graphic last week that claimed “MANAFORT PLEADS GUILTY TO 5 CHARGES OF MANSLAUGHTER”? Where the hell did that come from?

THE “BE NICE TO JOURNALISTS ACT”?: Kyle Smith eviscerates the whining US press corps, and NBC’s Kasey Hunt in particular:

While President Trump was mocking the media as usual at his South Carolina rally last night, Hunt tweeted, “The last person to rule America who didn’t believe in the First Amendment was King George III.” Leave aside that Trump does not “rule” America or that the First Amendment didn’t exist during the period of British rule anyway. Describing Trump as uniquely antagonistic to the First Amendment among presidents is preposterous. It is historical illiteracy.

It’s not like this hasn’t been pointed out before. She’d last about 5 minutes in Singapore or Thailand.

REPEAT AFTER ME: “BEWARE THE PIOUS.” This one is particularly upsetting/repulsive, given the serious nature of the cause this guy purported to serve. NBC’s NY local station reports that “A New York man who helps run a group to raise awareness about sex abuse of children was himself arrested Tuesday on child sex abuse charges.”

A deeper dive of his organization’s website states that the group was hosted at one point by “UN Special Envoy” Angelina Jolie. If that’s indeed true, just one more reason to ignore actors when they start lecturing us, no matter how noble-sounding the cause is.

WANT MORE TRUMP? THIS IS HOW YOU GET MORE TRUMP:  The lunatics are coming out in droves. Maybe Maxine Waters is crazy enough to think she can pardon this guy…

“A criminal complaint shows Key is accused of telling an intern who answered the phone, “I’m going to find the Congressman’s kids and kill them. If you’re going to separate kids at the border, I’m going to kill his kids. Don’t try to find me because you won’t.’[…]Key’s social media pages show he is very politically active. He volunteers regularly for the Democratic Party of Martin County and has volunteered many hours for Planned Parenthood, according to a friend of Key’s.”

Of course he does.

A 24-HOUR “HUNGER STRIKE”? The bravery, the virtue, the sacrifice, the selflessness…it’s all too much to bear. Rachel Evan Wood is truly the reincarnation of Mahatma Gandhi. This is the most Hollywood thing I’ve seen all year.

I THINK SOMEONE GOT PUNKED, AND IT’S NOT O’KEEFE: According to The Daily Beast:

“One alleged Project Veritas associate, for example, has an “affinity for wearing kilts” in his stings. The site also warns to be on the lookout for people wearing unusual clothing, specifically citing lederhosen as an example.”

Lederhosen? Is that a “he’s a Nazi” dogwhistle or just barking mad?

THINGS AIN’T WHAT THEY USED TO BE: The Wall Street Journal reports what some have known for a long time, namely that the ACLU long ago abandoned their Constitutionalism in favor of becoming just another wing of the DNC.

The American Civil Liberties Union has explicitly endorsed the view that free speech can harm “marginalized” groups by undermining their civil rights. “Speech that denigrates such groups can inflict serious harms and is intended to and often will impede progress toward equality,” the ACLU declares in new guidelines governing case selection and “Conflicts Between Competing Values or Priorities.”

The WSJ is behind a paywall, but Reason has a pretty good summary here. A lot of us in the Free Speech practice space saw this coming a long time ago, when they stayed silent during the suppression of speech many consider “odious” but constitutionally protected. I have no doubt in my mind that Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, and others would not have their support today, and couldn’t work. For that matter, I suspect that if his writing did not support a particular multi-culti agenda creating a hierarchy of victimhood, Thomas Paine wouldn’t get their support either.

SPYING ON REPORTERS: Nothing new, but this week’s Daily Caller column takes a look at how the groundwork was laid by Obama — and others — going as far back as 1917. Dissent must always be observed in order to crush it.

COME LET US REASON TOGETHER: Hope springs eternal (for me, anyway) that people on all sides of issues can talk and debate without hyperventilating. A new initiative supporting rational look at Carbon Taxes, Americans For Carbon Dividends has a remarkably broad base of leadership, including Republicans Trent Lott, Mark McKinnon, Karen Hughes. Of course, The New York Times has a snarky take on it, and couldn’t help but throw in gratuitous insults about those who are skeptical of the extent, degree, timing of Global Warming theories. Even if you believe it’s a hoax or scam (and there’s a little bit of truth in both) bi-partisan approaches in a calm, intelligent non-partisan setting are always good.

SLANDER A VETERAN, LET YOUR PUBLISHER APOLOGIZE FOR YOU, THEN HIDE: As pointed out here and and here, The New Yorker’s smarter-than-you Talia Lavin (@chick_in_kiev) has now protected her tweets. What that says to me is the bubble hardens, and those smug elitists just retreat into an ever-smaller echo chamber.

Having legally vetted thousands of stories in my career as a media lawyer, I am always surprised (and disappointed) by reporters who attack someone and justify it by saying “hey, they’re fair game, they stepped up to the plate, they need to learn to take the high inside fastball.” I heard this time and time again when I questioned stories about Sarah Palin, John McCain, Ted Cruz and others. What I can’t understand is why simpering babies hide or whine when the shoe is on their foot. Yes, I’m talking to you, Jim Acosta. Grow a pair or get out of the game.

NEW YORK’S SMARTEST LIBELS NEW YORK’S BRAVEST: A Harvard-educated fact-checker for the New Yorker is being excoriated by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency for “baselessly slandering” a Marine veteran — by falsely accusing him of having a Nazi tattoo, according to reports.

Just an accident. Never mind. Nothing to see here. Doesn’t indicate any confirmation bias. Nope.

THE SOLUTION IS SO OBVIOUS: Make warm weather illegal.

BILLIONAIRE, PUBLISHER, LIBERAL, OPPRESSOR: Hey, you know what’s cool  about this country? Not just monster trucks, the Blue Angels and the fact that one can say “fuck you” to the Nation’s leader on national television without being hauled away by secret police in the middle of the night. (Try *that* in Saudi Arabia or Turkey, kids).

No, those are all cool, but we live in a country where you can be one of the three richest men in the world, own a newspaper that touts income equality and wealth distribution, but according to your own employees, underpays them. At least, according to the 400 staffers at the Washington Post who penned an open letter to Bezos:

#DearJeffBezos, we workers of The Washington Post have been bargaining for a year and have little to show for it because The Post won’t meet us halfway on much of anything. We love The Post. We know you do too. Our work has earned us more than what The Post is offering.

Democracy Dies in Darkness, you know. Resist and all that good stuff.