Category Archives: Media

NEW COLUMN Updated (1/21): Dissident Deplorables Refuse To Be Dittoheads

Critique, Donald Trump, Elections, English, Family, Journalism, Media, Political Correctness

NEW COLUMN is “Dissident Deplorables Refuse To Be Dittoheads.”

In its attenuated form, the column appeared on Townhall.com. If you prefer lukewarm, milquetoast, bland fare (as much as this writer can do those), adapted for conservative tastes, then stick with this version: “Dissident Deplorables Deserve Decent Coverage.”

Otherwise, read the piece in full on The Unz Review.  Or, look-away, FAST (as did others. Yes, the piece was spiked elsewhere).  The more I read Mencken, the more I know this: If he were alive today, Unz Review woudl be the only place that would dare publish him.

Excerpt:

The happening featured beefcake Donald Trump Jr. and bimbo Kimberly Guilfoyle.

The couple was on stage at UCLA to promote the president’s son’s “book,” when they were jeered by dissident Deplorables for shutting down the Question-and-Answer segment.

“Book” here is in quotations to denote “so-called,” because the staple, ghost-written political pablum, penned by ambitious political flotsam, relates to literacy as H. L. Mencken relates to conformity—not at all.

Predictably, Guilfoyle opted out of the conversational give-and-take demanded by her man’s hecklers, and went straight for the groin:

“I bet you engage in online dating, because you’re impressing no one here to get a date in person.”

Why “predictably”? Well, a supple mind may not be one of Guilfoyle’s assets.

Kimberley’s cerebral alacrity was seldom showcased when seated in Fox News’ legs chair. During one of her last televised appearances on “The Five,” a Fox News daytime show, Guilfoyle protested that, “the U.S. has already reduced its [toxic] ‘admissions’ enough.”

I give you Guilfoyle, verbatim, in her own words: “So, we can keep doing what we’re doing. We can keep reducing our admissions. …”

To Make English Great Again, you reduce emissions, not “admissions.”

For a while, it even seemed that Trump, looking for curve appeal in a press secretary, was going for Guilfoyle. She certainly thought so and said as much, implying, at the time, that she herself is “a great communicator … with deep knowledge.”

And no; I do not digress. This all goes to the Guilfoyle’s knee-jerk, flirty, aim-for-the-groin reaction to her hombre’s hecklers.

Tellingly, the taunting of Donald Jr. by dissident Deplorables was covered very differently by the American Daily Beast and the British Guardian.

Descriptions of political positions and personalities were prefaced by the Daily Beast with “edifying” editorializing. The hecklers the Beast described as “fringe-right.” Their alleged instigator and inspiration was said to be “a white nationalist.” Perfectly legitimate demands from this disgruntled audience for a “Q&A” and for “America First,” the Daily Beast deemed tantamount to a right-wing insurrection or civil war.

Discrediting dissent is all in a day’s work for the American press.

What do you know? The hecklers at Trump Jr.’s book-flogging were also known, to the Daily Beast at least, as “Holocaust deniers.” As far as this reader can tell, the group taunting the empty suits on stage for refusing to answer questions had said not a word about the Holocaust. Nor had the disrupters been interviewed by the Daily Beast about their views on the Holocaust.

More to the point: Why is participation in our democracy predicated on one’s views on the Holocaust? What the hell does an individual’s opinion about that topic have to do with his right to solicit answers from members of Donald Trump’s politically active dynasty? I say this as a Jew whose family tree was truncated by the industrial-scale mass murder of millions of Jews that was the Holocaust. …

… READS THE REST.  NEW COLUMN is “Dissident Deplorables Refuse To Be Dittoheads.” Or, “Dissident Deplorables Deserve Decent Coverage,” if you can’t take the heat. 

UPDATE (11/21): 

On WND: “Is political participation predicated on views about the Holocaust?” “Discrediting dissent is all in a day’s work for the American press,” says this Jew, whose family tree was truncated by the industrial-scale mass murder that was the Holocaust. MORE …

The Daily Northwestern, A Newspaper, Says ‘No’ To Journalism

English, Free Speech, Journalism, Kids, Media

Woke journalism puts feelings before facts.

The background to the latest campus snowflake storm comes straight from the horse’s mouth (with apologies to horses). Writes The Daily Northwestern (in crappy English and style):

former Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke on campus at a Northwestern University College Republicans event. The Daily sent a reporter to cover that talk and another to cover the students protesting his invitation to campus, along with a photographer.

We recognize that we contributed to the harm students experienced, and we wanted to apologize for and address the mistakes that we made that night — along with how we plan to move forward.

One area of our reporting that harmed many students was our photo coverage of the event. Some protesters found photos posted to reporters’ Twitter accounts retraumatizing and invasive. Those photos have since been taken down. On one hand, as the paper of record for Northwestern, we want to ensure students, administrators and alumni understand the gravity of the events that took place Tuesday night. However, we decided to prioritize the trust and safety of students who were photographed. We feel that covering traumatic events requires a different response than many other stories. While our goal is to document history and spread information, nothing is more important than ensuring that our fellow students feel safe — and in situations like this, that they are benefitting from our coverage rather than being actively harmed by it. We failed to do that last week, and we could not be more sorry [SIC]

And so it goes. If only this tinny denunciation of basic journalistic practices was, at least, written with some flare.

MORE of the mea culpa:Addressing The Daily’s coverage of Sessions protests.”

UPDATED III (4/11/020): DRUDGE Clearly Cares Deeply About Animals, All Animals

Conservatism, Culture, Environmentalism & Animal Rights, Ethics, Media, Morality

To his great credit, DRUDGE Report alerts almost daily to stories of abuse of wild and companion animals.

Drudge is also clearly trying to raise consciousness about the destruction of animal habitat at the hands of humans, that is if thematically consistent headlines on the site are any indication.

And DRUDGE does not appear to be one of those ethically challenged individuals who’ll tell you, “I’m a dog person; fuck the lions who’re being culled in canned hunts.”

My impression from following this news aggregator’s headlines for years is that DRUDGE cares deeply about animals and their fate.

Today, the item on Drudge raised awareness about “the complex relationship between humans and animals.”

Yesterday, Drudge linked to a story of a starving elephant made to carry tourists until she dropped dead.  Disgusting culture that would allow this.

I will keep you updated with a daily Drudge on animals.

UPDATE I (12/26/019):

Via DRUDGE: “Elephants in Thailand ‘broken’ for lucrative animal tourism…

UPDATE II (1/14/020): Parrots are innately kind.

UPDATE II (2/14/020):

“Meet the Wildlife Police: An unsung group of conservation heroes often stands between human predators and species on the edge of extinction”:

One of these critter cops is Andy McWilliam, a veteran English police officer who joined the NWCU at its inception in 2006. Mr. McWilliam has tracked down taxidermists and collectors of rare birds and mammals; prosecuted real-estate developers who destroyed the habitats of protected water voles and brown long-eared bats; and helped lead a national campaign to arrest egg collectors, a fraternity of largely middle-aged men who raid nests in England, Scotland and Wales, threatening protected species from kingfishers to golden eagles.
Even within their own departments, wildlife police sometimes struggle for respect. Mr. McWilliam recalls being taunted by colleagues in Liverpool after he returned to the station house with an egg collector in custody. “Put him before the beak,” they joked, using a slang term for a magistrate. …

… In 2017, Mr. McWilliam gathered intelligence in England for his American counterparts that led to the arrest, conviction and jailing of a Connecticut taxidermist who had stuffed and smuggled dozens of rare, protected birds, in violation of both the U.S. Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Endangered Species Act.

The NWCU has inspired other wildlife-crime units. Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia and the Netherlands all established or strengthened environmental-crime divisions in recent years. Operation Blizzard, a 2019 investigation overseen by Interpol and Europol, mobilized wildlife agencies from 22 countries against the illegal global trade of reptiles. The operation, according to Interpol, “resulted in the seizure of 2,703 turtles and tortoises, 1,059 snakes, 512 lizards and geckos, and 20 crocodiles and alligators.”
More in Ideas

The case of Jeffrey Lendrum, a notorious bird thief and smuggler who trafficked live peregrine eggs to wealthy falconers in the Persian Gulf, brought the NWCU its greatest encomiums—and showcased the increased cooperation of wildlife cops across international borders. In 2010, Mr. McWilliam led the investigation against Mr. Lendrum in Birmingham, England, for peregrine smuggling that sent him to prison for a year. In October 2015, Mr. Lendrum flew to Patagonia on another egg-thieving mission. A hotel clerk who’d read about the Birmingham arrest six years earlier tipped off Chile’s wildlife police, but Mr. Lendrum had already departed for Brazil. The Chileans alerted their Brazilian counterparts, who nabbed him in São Paulo’s airport as he was about to board a flight to Dubai. Wildlife agents seized four rare, white-breasted peregrine eggs stolen from Patagonia’s cliffs. …

UPDATE III (4/11/020): Corona and Zoonotic transmission

As this blog post suggests, DRUDGE is attempting to lead the ethical way via his hyperlinks.

Via Drudge, a news aggregator, comes the news link concerning Jane Goodall warning that the manner in which animals, wild and domestic, are raised, harvested and treated creates conditions and opportunity for viruses to jump from animals across the species barrier to humans.

She is not without sympathy and solutions for the poor, but she knows of what she speaks regarding the zoonotic source of the coronavirus pandemic.

On The Tucker Carlson Show, It’s Whine, Whine, Whine About Harvey Weinstein

Business, Conservatism, IMMIGRATION, Media, Nationhood, Republicans

Non-stop coverage of corporate corruption is now the standard fare on Tucker Carlson’s show.

The Fox News host used to, courageously, tackle the national existential questions of immigration and the future of America as we know it, once it is entirely swamped by an imported Democratic constituency. Mr. Carlson now hardly does so any longer (or, perhaps I don’t listen long enough).

Today, October 23, 2019, there was the usual, daily whine, whine, whine about Harvey Weinstein and the MSNBC cover-up. Like I care.

Then it was on to some anon crook who got rewarded mightily by someone despite having run a Ponzi scheme. How unusual and news worthy is that in America? Never happens, right? Of course

The country is crumbling. Big national issues loom with terrible urgency. The borders are open, and, by the looks of it, no court will permit a president to EVER shut them. Yet Tucker Carlson
devotes 30 minutes of each show to whine, whine, whine about Weinstein and MSNBC.

The Tucker Carlson Show appears to have become one long Republican talking point.

* Image courtesy The Unz Review.