Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors

Media 42 Comments

It used to bother me…

…that journalists were portrayed in pop culture as sniveling, amoral weenies. Take William Atherton’s iconic portrayal in Die Hard of “Thornburg,” the TV-news creep who gasps, “Tell me you got that!” with orgasmic awe when an explosion rocks the Nakatomi building. I got that — I’d seen that face on reporters.

But risking the life of hero John McClane’s wife Holly by putting her name on TV, and getting the info by threatening the family nanny Paulina with an immigration raid? We’re bad, I thought, but not that bad. I got that it was a movie, but my father was a local TV man, and that one stung a bit.

MSNBC Thursday pulled a Thornburg in real life. Police stopped a man named James Morrison who was apparently following a jury bus, and said he was acting at the direction of a New York-based MSNBC producer named Irene Byon. Even if all you’re after is a post-verdict interview, if a jury gets the slightest whiff that the press is searching out their names and addresses, that’s clear intimidation. People will worry about the safety of their spouses and children as they’re deliberating. Not that it matters to anyone but the defense, prosecution, judge, jury, and taxpayers, but you’re also putting the trial at risk. I’ve covered plenty of celebrity trials, from Michael Jackson to the Enron defendants, and know the identifying-jurors practice isn’t unheard of. However, in a powder-keg case like this, it’s bonkers to play it any way but straight.

We’ve seen Die Hard-level indifference to social consequence from the beginning of this case. The context of the Rittenhouse shootings involved a summer of protests that began after the police killing of George Floyd, and continued in Kenosha after the death of Jacob Blake. We saw demonstrations of all types last summer, ranging from solemn candlelight vigils and thousands of protesters laying peacefully on their backs across bridges, to the burning of storefronts and “hundreds” of car thieves stealing “nearly 80” cars from a dealership in San Leandro, California. When the population is on edge, and people are amped and ready to lash out, that puts an even greater onus on media figures to get things right.

In a tinderbox situation like this one, it was reckless beyond belief for analysts to tell audiences Rittenhouse was a murderer when many if not most of them had a good idea he would be acquitted. But that’s exactly what most outlets did. …

The rest is paywalled, but this stands well enough on its own.

42 Replies to “Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors”

  1. Most of the MSM journalists go to sleep crying that they were never able to personally give oral pleasures to Josef Goebbels.

  2. “the police killing of George Floyd”

    Bullshit of the finest ray serene. Another political conviction of an innocent man.

    The inclusion of this bit of propaganda renders the rest only fit for the compost heap.

    1. My advice is to stop demanding ideological purity from people, unless you enjoy talking only to yourself.

      1. Kate, a recurring problem for conservatives is that we unthinkingly use the language of our ideological enemies. We must learn to recognize the implicit propaganda in every statement and reject it. Just because the MSM says something doesn’t make it true, no matter how often they repeat it.

        The Goebbels comparison is true; we keep falling for the same tired lies and instead of phrasing things to our own advantage, we just lazily use the words and phrases and memes that our enemy hands us.

        Refuse the propaganda; pay attention to every word.

        We have lost the culture war because we allowed small things to slide, thinking it doesn’t matter.

        Everything matters.

    2. Agreed….I don’t buy that bit either.

      Buddy was jacked up beyond all reason on Christ knows what…? fentanyl for sure – “Innocent” he was not.
      No fks given for that homicidal POS..one less shithead beating on pregnant women is fine by me in SPADES.

      It’s not like the cops busted his door down and went in guns blazing with him sitting with wife n kids having dinner…??
      I Mean JESUS, it wasn’t Like Toronto or PEEL Regional working 150km out of their jurisdiction kicking in a DOOR and blasting away…Hells Bells, said LA Cops didn’t even bring their own Ambulance…

      Come on eh..??

  3. Progressive journalists (i.e. 99% of them) are media maggots who cry out in pain as they destroy the lives of others.

      2. “Progressive” is a code word for “Evil”

        There, fixed it for both of you.

  4. “In a tinderbox situation like this one, it was reckless beyond belief for analysts to tell audiences Rittenhouse was a murderer…”

    Reckless? No. Absolutely no downside for journalists. They’re untouchable.

    Calculated? Yes! They have a boss, those journalists. This is what their boss told them to do. They did it. And they will CONTINUE to do it, until such time as there are some consequences for lying like that.

    I suspect their media outlets going bankrupt will ultimately end up being the only real consequence. Nobody else is stepping up to hold them to account, that’s for sure.

  5. (((“In a tinderbox situation like this one, it was reckless beyond belief for analysts to tell audiences Rittenhouse was a murderer when many if not most of them had a good idea he would be acquitted.” )))

    ___________________________________

    Why, after all the evidence to the contrary, ad nauseum, do people keep giving the benefit of the doubt to the press. It wasn’t “reckless” for analysts to act this way. IT IS CALLED SETTING THE NARRATIVE. It is purposeful. It is very much a strategy of the left. They are much more egregious than mere recklessness.

    Reverse the roles. Put one of the three that were shot in Rittenhouse’s position and have Rittenhouse the one shot. The media ignore it because it doesn’t serve the narrative much less the ideology. Hell, we’ve seen them do it (Ashley Babbit).

    Stop giving them a pass and blaming their behavior on ignorance and recklessness. It’s anything but.

    1. I agree with you…conservatives are kind of stupid because they keep giving their enemies “just one more chance.” I used to laugh at Charlie Brown when Lucy would promise him that she wouldn’t move the football so he could make the kick…then inevitably move the football and Charlie Brown goes flying…that’s such an apt representation of conservatives in general. And heaven forbid should one mention, essentially, fighting fire with fire…pearl clutching ensues and “we’re not like that, we’re civilized, we’re law-abiding, we’ve got jobs” and similar excuses are cried out like prayers that will keep the evil away.

    2. No, but he’s rolling himself around in a wheelchair. His baby momma claimed he’d assaulted her and was taking away her child at knife point, so she called the police. Blake ignored lawful orders to halt, then went to his car and retrieved a knife when he was shot by the responding officers. The DA declined to charge the officer(s) involved, the city made him a millionaire. Crime pays.

  7. Journalists are now not hired for their objectivity, integrity and honesty- they are hired if those are absent. (and bonus if you’re a sociopath)

    Whatever might have existed years ago (and that is arguable – Cronkite, Mike Wallace, Rather etc) has been culled out of the profession.

    Currently doing the same to police and military forces – out with the good in with the radical ideologues – who will turn their weapons on their fellow citizens on the orders of the ruling elite.

  12. John Jonah Jameson Jr. is a fictional character “Publisher or News editor” from Spiderman comics issue 1 on .
    He hates, “HATES” Spiderman no matter how many people he saves and diabolical monsters he arrests or exposes.

    Stan Lee was right then and now and taught us how the MSM is diametrically 180°opposed to good, right and success. On everything.

  14. This might be a job for OJ or Ontario John, but what were the CBC’s, Globe and Mail’s etc, take on Rittenhouse , before they’re wiped off their sites?

  15. The media is nothing but a bunch of smear merchants whose most important role is smearing and vilifying the reputation of their ideological opponents.
    The only difference between the left and the right media is that one side uses truth, and the other uses lies, for the most part, although that line is getting clearer and clearer even as it gets fuzzier and fuzzier. Such is war.

  16. When the riots start there may be a need to kill a few BLM and Antifa folks. If the rest of the rioters don’t get the message then continue shooting.

    1. Sure. As the trial has proven, its still OK to defend one’s life and one’s property.
      If you think your life is so valuable that its worth infringing on the freedom of millions, well, you have a severe case of narcissism, far beyond the pale, well into the realm of mental illness. Seek help.
      Us evil righties will help, all you need to do is ask, like that chick from Western University did, now she has a job, and a mission: To avenge the indignity the left subjected her to. We can help you too.

    2. Well whaddaya know, I finally agree with DJ on something. Must be the work of the Lord.

  17. Atherton also did a great job portraying the authoritarian EPA bureaucrat (Walter Peck) in “Ghostbusters”. Perhaps it was the Reagan era culture where “the state” was seen in a more reasoned light.

    1. That was around the time Hollywood started its total slide into a leftist propaganda organ. In any GB remake today, Peck would be the hero.

  19. So, is there any chance that any of the jurors have an opportunity for a lawsuit against NBC, MSNBC, the named producer and the “journalist”?

    Asking for a friend…

  20. Umm, Jacob Blake isn’t dead. Or did Politifactopinion just decide he was dead to the left, his usefulness ended? Ouch, that’ll leave a mark.

    “The media and communist Democrats really want something bad to happen after today’s acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse. It’s so bad that both ABC and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee put out lies today after the Rittenhouse acquittal, claiming that Jacob Blake, the man who whom the riots started was killed. This is of course not true, Jacob Blake is alive and even did an interview with ABC, Good Morning America, just this past week! Good Morning America is an ABC morning propaganda program.”

    Here is ABC Terry MORON calling Jacob Blake, a black man killed by police after today’s jury verdicts. This pure lies and gaslighting:”

    https://www.pacificpundit.com/2021/11/19/abc-and-dccc-gaslight-claim-jacob-blake-is-dead-hes-not/

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