Category Archives: Ethics

UPDATED: Rotten Journalism On Fox News About Ugly Americans Abroad

America, Crime, Ethics, Etiquette, Journalism, Sport

The TV had been on for an hour, and Fox News journalist Martha McCullum had yet to recount the “The Five Ws” of journalism vis-a-vis the case of “American swimmer Ryan Lochte being robbed at gunpoint in Rio de Janeiro.”

What happened?
Who did that?
When did it take place?
Where did it take place?
Why did that happen?

Then McCullum, (still infinitely superior to the put-upon Gretchen Carlson) and her Fox New friends, proceeded to make light of the alleged behavior engaged in by US athletes while representing their country abroad, at the Olympic games in Rio.

Boys will be boys was the angle. At 32, Lochte is considered a boy.

How libertine.

The alleged facts via the AP:

A Brazilian police official told The Associated Press that American swimmer Ryan Lochte fabricated a story about being robbed at gunpoint in Rio de Janeiro.

The official, who has direct knowledge of the investigation, spoke on the condition of anonymity Thursday because he was not authorized to speak about an ongoing probe.

He said that around 6 a.m. on Sunday, Lochte, along with fellow swimmers Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz and Jimmy Feigen, stopped at a gas station in Barra da Tijuca, a suburb of Rio where many Olympic venues are located. One of the swimmers tried but failed to open the door of an outside bathroom.

A few of the swimmers then pushed on the door and broke it. A security guard appeared and confronted them, the official said.

The official says the guard was armed with a pistol, but he never took it out or pointed it at the swimmers.

According to the official, the gas station manager then arrived. Using a customer to translate, the manager asked the swimmers to pay for the broken door. After a discussion, they did pay him an unknown amount of money and then left.

The official says that swimmers Conger and Bentz, who were pulled off a plane going back to the United States late Wednesday, told police that the robbery story had been fabricated.

Lochte first lied about the robbery to his mother, Ileana Lochte, who spoke with reporters, the police official said. That led to news coverage of the incident and prompted police attention. …

UPDATE (8/18): The New York Post catches up with me:

Ryan Lochte open his mouth. And when you hear what comes tumbling out, it all makes perfect sense. … That’s the worst part of what Lochte and his stable of stumble-bumbling swimmer pals have done the past few days, now that it’s apparent that whatever might have happened to them late one night — actually, early one morning — in Rio, it wasn’t exactly the way Lochte described it the first time around. In fact, it seems apparent that Lochte and his cohorts in chaos — Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz and Jimmy Feigen, all swimmers representing the US in a decidedly different way than Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps did — were using the old “robbed-at-gunpoint” chestnut as cover for what was apparently a gas station encounter with a security guard and, quite hilariously, a bathroom door. …

Trump Owes Loyalty To Melania, Not To Pipsqueak Plagiarizer. Fire Her.

Donald Trump, English, Ethics, Etiquette, Media, Morality

Donald Trump landed in Cleveland with Mike Pence at his side. The candidate thanked family members by name for their contribution and/or speeches on his behalf, so far. He did not mention his wife Melania by name, a woman who did a spectacular job and to whom an enormous dissever has been done by a staff member who should be fired.

If a class act such as Corey Lewandowski, a man so eloquent in his loyalty to Trump, was escorted out of Trump Tower like a criminal—so too should a two-bit plagiarizer.

As the consummate writer who is wedded to her prose, I detest plagiarizers. I detest people so low as to refuse to acknowledge their sources, or place these apart from the main text in quotation marks.

Invalid here is the tit-for-tat argument that the foul Dems do it, too, and the media utter not a squeak when liberal lie and cheat. That’s no justification; it’s a non sequitur.

All writers should make a big fuss over plagiarism and settle down only when the plagiarizer is dealt what’s coming to her.

RELATED: “Fareed Zakaria Plagiarizer.”

‘Mateen.’ ‘Mateen.’ ‘Omar Mateen.’ There. I Said It. Media Should Too.

Ethics, Etiquette, Journalism, Media, Morality, Terrorism

Petulant, petty media keep announcing they won’s say the name of the Muslim mass murderer of 49 Pulse patrons in Orlando, last week. Not to say the name of a killer is a silly and infantile gesture, or habit oft repeated by the sanctimonious, self-important sorts in media. It conjures the person who covers his ears and hums loudly, so as not to hear bad news. Reality is reality. Facts are facts. Deal. Media are not in a morality contest. Media are meant to function as chroniclers, entrusted with relaying events, not transmitting subliminal messages.

Omar Mateen. Omar Mateen. Omar Mateen. There. I said it.

Deformed Dwarfs Ride Horses To Their Deaths At Freakness

Environmentalism & Animal Rights, Ethics, Morality

Try running fast yourselves, freaks. Don’t ride an animal to death. As detailed in the post “American Pharoah Flogged To Victory,” the demonic, deformed dwarfs riding these beautiful and brave racehorses are merciless motherf-ckers. It’s as simple as all that. Two noble creatures were ridden to death by more such little devils, jockeys they’re called, at the Preakness (not sure if that’s a typo) this year.