WHAT’S REALLY IMPORTANT IN NEWS COVERAGE? Giant boobs, of course. My weekly column at Daily Caller is up!

GREAT CAESAR’S GHOST! FOIA requests filed in November 2016 yielded documents that had names redacted for “privacy.” We now know those names were “Jimmy Olson”, “Lois Lane” and Clark Kent.”
What kind of dope was running the FBI in 2016?

MOMMY, MAKE THE MEAN MAN STOP TWEETING ABOUT ME: On the same day that comfortably smug people are patting themselves on the back about the use of foul language to describe a President they hate (“War on the press!!!) three Radio Free Europe journalists were killed while on assignment.

Police and the Health Ministry put the number of dead at 25, and police said 45 wounded victims were hospitalized — including six journalists. Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanekzai was quoted as saying that four police officers were killed.

How dare the WHCA reporters put themselves in the same league.
**Bumped up to include link to one of my Op/Eds on this very subject. The Washington Press Corps think that being served a too-warm Chardonnay is a war crime.**

MOMMY, MAKE THE MEAN MAN STOP TWEETING ABOUT ME: On the same day that comfortably smug people are patting themselves on the back about the use of foul language to describe a President they hate (“War on the press!!!) three Radio Free Europe journalists were killed while on assignment.

Police and the Health Ministry put the number of dead at 25, and police said 45 wounded victims were hospitalized — including six journalists. Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanekzai was quoted as saying that four police officers were killed.

How dare the WHCA reporters put themselves in the same league.

LET ME SHOW YOU MY SHOCKED FACE: “Watch: Roomful of Rich, White NYC Parents Get Big Mad at Plan to Diversify Neighborhood’s Schools.” The best part is this map. This is the area. Guess what the blue shading signifies. Go on, I’ll wait here.

KEYBOARD WARRIORS, UNITE! (Bumped from this morning).

BOYCOTTS IN THE DIGITAL AGE: My weekly column is up at The Daily Caller. From Starbucks to Breitbart to Chik-fil-A, there’s something for everybody.

WHY POLICE CAMERAS ARE AWESOME: Port Authority official tries to bully a cop. Doesn’t go so well. The extra-delicious part:

“Flashing her commissioner’s gold badge and boasting of her influence during a routine traffic stop involving her daughter, Caren Z. Turner demanded to know why police had pulled the car over and why it was being impounded […] Turner, 60, a Democratic lobbyist who served as the ethics chair of the powerful bi-state agency.”

Ethics chair. Let that sink in.

I TOLD YOU SO: The day after the election, I told a bunch of media lawyers (many of whom had been literally crying all night) to cheer up, that Trump’s election was a godsend to a dying industry. A few damned near took my head off, but well, here’s the proof.

“A “60 Minutes” interview with President Donald Trump’s alleged mistress Stormy Daniels was viewed by 22 million people. It was the show’s highest ratings in 10 years.”

I still insist Jeff Zucker gave Trump the nomination.

WELL, LOOK HOW IT TURNED OUT FOR ANTHONY WEINER: “Joy Reid Claims Newly Discovered Homophobic Posts From Her Blog Were ‘Fabricated’”:

“How is that queers became the odd ones out at such a momentous turning point in history? By pushing an agenda of stupid issues like gay marriage.”

Reid is claiming that someone “hacked” her blog and added the remarks later, although as Mediaite points out, the sentiments expressed by the allegedly “faux” author sound in line with those she admitted having previously published.

She should have wiped her server, you know, with “like a cloth.”

WORST. LAWSUIT. EVER. As David Bernstein pointed out here, the DNC filed a lawsuit against, well, everybody they don’t like. I’ve read the papers and the legal term for this Complaint is “batsh*t crazy.” Leaving out the fact that they’ll never be able to properly serve most of the defendants, the key thing is if they get a judge inclined to stick to Second Circuit law, this complaint has to be dismissed. The days when you could file a thin Complaint just in the hopes of getting discovery are long over.

The Court has adopted widely a doctrine called “Iqbal/Twombly” which means that mere allegations of facts don’t cut it: there has to be enough factual foundation in the Complaint to make a plausible claim. Every “factual” allegation of consequence in this Complaint is unproven speculation. The Iqbal doctrine requires a complaint to allege facts that, if proven, would support the relief requested and to show that the alleged facts are “enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level, on the assumption that all the allegations in the complaint are true (even if doubtful in fact).”

This case is more than a publicity stunt. It’s become clear even to the most ardent Trump haters that there’s simply no evidence of Russian “collusion” and the focus moved to Stormy Daniels. This is an effort to reanimate the “Russian collusion” narrative.

Of course, because it’s in a judicial pleading, any re-reporting on it is absolutely immune in libel, and its being filed at all is a news peg, so it’s pretty much Tom Perez’ gift to MSNBC and others, allowing them and others to re-tell the “Russia collusion” story as if it had more credibility.

BECAUSE IT DIDN’T EMBARRASS SOMEONE THE PRESS HATES: I really don’t get why people are “shocked” that Judge Wood allowed an attorney (yes, he’s a pal of mine) to make an unscheduled appearance to argue for court access. I’ve done it at least twice, one of those times arguing successfully for the Bankruptcy Court to unseal records in the 2008 Lehman bankruptcy case.

But that was only a $600 billion matter affecting tens of thousands of pensioners and investors, not anything important like learning that a half-wit TV host was represented by a half-wit lawyer.

SPLC FORCED TO REMOVE LIST OF “ANTI-MUSLIM EXTREMISTS”: The National Review is reporting that the scam that is the SPLC has been “persuaded” to remove their libelous slurs about people who have the nerve to question Islamic terrorism.

 The Southern Poverty Law Center has removed the “Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists” from their website after attorneys for Maajid Nawaz, a practicing Muslim and prominent Islamic reformer, threatened legal action over his inclusion on the list.

People on the list included Pamela Geller, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, David Horowitz, Daniel Pipes and others. Apparently Maajid Nawaz, a practicing Muslim and prominent Islamic reformer, threatened legal action over his inclusion on the list, and retained Tom Clare of Clare Locke (the firm who proved Rolling Stone committed libel in their fake UVA “rape” story.)

I’m not a big fan of libel threats, but every now and then one comes along that needs to be made.

MOVIES, HISTORY AND SOMETIMES THE TRUTH: My column this week from The Daily Caller.

If we’re willing to accept historical movies as somewhat fictionalized, there is value in the chance that such a film might spark a deeper and more academic interest in the subject matter. I must confess though, I can’t but help be reminded of Dan Rather’s “fake but true” approach to journalism that led to his firing from CBS, where falsities are used to propagate an unproven truth. The difference of course is that movies require some degree of suspension of our disbelief. Documentaries and news are no place for fictionalization.

**Bumped up from early morning**

HISTORY AND MOVIES: My weekly column at The Daily Caller is up.

Most tellingly, Podesta refers to Kopechne’s death as “a footnote to history.” Jason Clarke, who played Kennedy in the film said the film “doesn’t try to sensationalize” the accident that Kennedy failed to report for 10 hours. A young woman’s death at the hands of a U.S. senator is more than a “footnote to history.”

BET THEY MISS THIS PART: G̶l̶o̶b̶a̶l̶ ̶w̶a̶r̶m̶e̶n̶i̶s̶t̶s̶ Educators who treat Earth Day like The Holiest Day Of All probably leave out this fun part:

On September 9, 1977, Ira Einhorn, one of Earth Day’s co-founders, lured his ex (the ‘ex’ portion occurring pre-brutal murder) girlfriend, Holly Maddux, to his apartment and killed her in a heartbroken rage. Though, he did choose to dispose of the body by composting her. So at least he’s consistent.

ACTUALLY, THAT’S A PRETTY LOW BAR: “Mayor de Blasio and workers from the Housing Authority were outwitted by the rodent.”

IT MUST BE FISKING DAY AT INSTAPUNDIT! Here’s a great one looking at The New Yorker (have I reminded you how much more erudite and sophisticated than you they are? I will) and their incredible expose of the connection between a simple but tasty chicken sandwich, the knuckle-dragging cro-magnons who visit Chik-fil-A in between Klan rallies and how they are simply not welcome in New York? Have I reminded you how much more erudite and sophisticated than you The New Yorker is?

If you are reading this, you are nothing but a deplorable carbon-blob, clinging to your guns and bibles. And, apparently your chicken sandwiches, too.

GUESS WHAT’S TRENDING?

FISKING A MEME: Teachers unions using viral media to make demands the average taxpayer wouldn’t have the nerve to ask for. So I fisked it.

Remember, it’s all for the children.

AS MEL ALLEN WOULD SAY: “How about that”?

Ronan Farrow wins a Pulitzer Prize.

WELL, THAT’S CREEPY: This went unnoticed, but if you want something about which to develop a new conspiracy theory, this is a doozie.

Sources have reported that infamous billionaire and registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s private island located in the Caribbean has recently caught on fire […] Notable public figures, such as former President Bill Clinton, have been reported to travel with Epstein on his ‘Lolita Express’ to various places, including this private island.

That’s one hell of a way to destroy evidence!

BUYING MEDIA FORGIVENESS: The Hypocrisy Of Limousine Liberals And Hollywood Celebs. My weekly Daily Caller Op/Ed.

Vanity Fair reported that Damon was paid $26,000,000 for one film despite having only 25 lines of dialogue. (His gun had more lines than he did.) Ironically, Damon used a 2016 press conference in Australia promoting that movie to express his desire for a massive confiscation of U.S. guns: “You guys did it here in one fell swoop [in 1996] and I wish that could happen in my country, but it’s such a personal issue for people that we cannot talk about it sensibly.” The next time someone says, “Nobody is saying take away all guns” remember Matt Damon and Sylvester Stallone: hardly “nobodies.”

(Bumped from early morning.)

HOLLYWOOD HYPOCRISY AND BUYING INDULGENCES: My weekly column is up at The Daily Caller.

It’s utterly dishonest to argue that Matt Damon’s bullet-fueled bloodbaths have no “normalizing” effect, but Donald Trump’s screeds, Milo Yiannopolis’s trolling or Christina Hoff Sommers’s quiet and scholarly academic speeches are “normalizing” and must be denied a platform or covered in a fair and objective manner.

ANOTHER TWO CENTS ON ZUCKERBERG IN FRONT OF SEN. CRUZ: To me, the most stunning statement was when Zuckerberg says he “is not familiar with Section 230″ (the law that protects ISPs from liability for third-party content.) That would be like the CEO of SmithKline saying he doesn’t know anything about pharmaceutical testing rules.

If his lawyers — after all this time — never briefed him on Section 230, he is either lying, willfully ignorant, or being poorly served by his legal team.