A Growing Collection: News Media Not Wanting Us to Know Important Things

I will be adding items to this list, apparently for a long time. I was provoked to create this list after reading Andrew Sullivan's collection of topics that the left-leaning news media works hard to not cover. I'll begin this list up here in a post and then continue adding items in the comments.

This list begins today, with this entry by Batya Ungar-Sargon coupled with this NYP article, "Journalists today aren’t muckrakers — they are defenders of the liberal elite":

[Added Dec 5, 2021]

They treat us like toddlers who are incapable of hearing the facts and coming to our own conclusions.

Glenn Greenwald:

In the last 18 months, US political discourse has been mass-censored over significant issues based on 2 lies:

1) The Biden email archive was "Russian disinformation."

2) The Science™ had proven COVID was zoonotic rather than from a lab.

Both lies led to widespread repression.

Continue ReadingA Growing Collection: News Media Not Wanting Us to Know Important Things

A Few Questions about Race

I enthusiastically support Glenn Loury's Substack. He often discusses race issues with John McWhorter. Glenn invited questions for their upcoming question and answer session. Here is my question. I hope they have time to address it on their Q & A:

Here’s a hypothetical for the two of you.

Assume that God visits the United States next Tuesday. After sizing things up, God performs a miracle. He/She/They decide to make it impossible for anyone to know the “race” of anyone else. There are no longer any physical or historical ways to determine the “race” of any people you meet. Two questions: What % of people would like this new world? What % would be distressed because they no longer have a quick proxy for judging the character of others? I suspect that some people doing DEI work will get upset because they will lose their jobs. Some people will get busy trying to determine new immutable characteristics upon which to judge the characteristics of other people—perhaps astrology and phrenology theories will again flourish. In the midst of all this panic, distress and commotion of this non-racial reckoning, the news media reports that someone (race unknown) murders 15 people (race unknown). Many people watching the news reports don’t know whether to give a shit in the absence of “racial” information.

Continue ReadingA Few Questions about Race

Democrat Media Goes Radio-Silent after Joe Biden Adopts Donald Trump’s Immigration Policy

The content of this thread following Glenn Greenwald's Tweet is exactly what we should expect to get more of as long as so many of us continue relishing two-party tribalism rather than engaging in nuanced heterodox thinking. Read the thread and you will find cheap theater staged by Rachel Maddow and AOC on this issue. Too many of us are working in overtime to score cheap political points instead of working to have meaningful discussions regarding complex issues. The HxA way would be a good start.  

Looking back  only 18 months . . .

Continue ReadingDemocrat Media Goes Radio-Silent after Joe Biden Adopts Donald Trump’s Immigration Policy

WP: Now that We Think About it . . . There’s No Evidence that Rittenhouse was a White Supremicist

The WP apparently trying to mitigate damages in the libel suit they are now apparently worrying about. Responsible professional journalism would have been evidence-based from the very beginning. I probably need to add that I'm no fan of Kyle Rittenhouse. He is not any sort of hero to me. I write this as someone who has seen the widespread decline in the the ability of legacy news outlets that I formerly trusted.

Continue ReadingWP: Now that We Think About it . . . There’s No Evidence that Rittenhouse was a White Supremicist

The Political Left Needs to Start Judging More Wisely

I saw this Rogan interview with Krystal and Saagar. I've watched a lot of Joe Rogan for the past two years. He leans far left on most issues he discusses, but that's not good enough for most people and news media on the political left, who seek to purification, not nuanced discussion. Many of them have no idea what to do with people like Rogan, who hold heterodox opinions. They reject the idea of human complexity and they are increasibly thinking in cartoons. That is the subject of Krystal Ball's 7-minute commentary. It was spot on. I've seen this rejection of the "impure" on FB over and over. IMO, this is ruining the political left and sending many voters over to the political right, which is morally bankrupt.

My advice to people on the political left: Quit demonizing people who are not aligned with your views. Quit writing off everyone who voted differently than you. Engage openly and respectfully with your family, neighbors and friends who think differently than you. I'm an atheist, but Jesus had it right when he gave the Sermon on the Mount: "Love your enemies." I give thanks today that we don't all think alike. And I give thanks for the wisdom of John Stuart Mill. And I give thanks for the courage and soaring inspirational thoughts of Martin Luther King: Hate cannot drive out hate and we should judge each other only by the content of our character. Let's start judging each other more wisely starting today.

Continue ReadingThe Political Left Needs to Start Judging More Wisely