One of my strengths as a blogger, I like to think, is my ability to discern patterns. Sometimes they are just statistical blips, quirks, coincidences, but sometimes they are a bit more significant.
For example, just twice in recent weeks, MSNBC personnel have been caught just openly lying about prominent Republicans. And I’m not talking about misleading, or misstating, or making an error — I’m talking about reporting that was so flagrantly and blatantly wrong that it could only be the result of malice.
First up, on Chris Matthews’ show on MSNBC, he had NBC reporter/anchor Chris Jansing on. They played a clip of a Rick Perry speech, and then Jansing discussed what Perry had said. Specifically, Jansing said Perry had likened the fight over corporate tax rates to the civil rights struggle.
Thing is, Perry had said no such thing. And the clip of his speech showed that clearly — but on Matthews’ show, they cut the clip to conceal that fact.
I suspect that Matthews was just trying to catch up with Ed Schultz, who recently also took a swipe at Perry. Perry had talked about a “black cloud” over America. This, obviously, was racist, since Obama would have to be the “black cloud.” And the video backed it up.
At least, it did once Schultz (or, more likely, his staff — from what I’ve heard, he’s not smart enough to handle video editing) got done with cutting out the part where Perry explicitly stated that the “black cloud” was the federal debt.
And this is the same outfit that, during the ObamaCare debates, talked about the evil, scary racists who showed up to rallies armed, and featured a brief, close-up video of a man in a shirt and tie with an AR-15 slung over his shoulder. They had to make it brief and very close up, or the viewers might have noticed that this armed and dangerous racist and white supremacist was black.
Likewise, the New York Times is also doing the Democrats’ legwork for them. About a week ago, they wrote a hit piece on Congressman Darrell Issa, who is heading up some investigations into some shady dealings within the Obama administration. Issa wrote the Times a letter, pointing out that each and every single accusation against him was utterly false, and the Times… well, they seem to be retracting it, a wee bit at a time. They don’t seem to want to admit that there wasn’t a single factual thing in the story, especially not with all the prominence that the original lies received.
The important thing to remember here is that this is what they do. This is what the mainstream media — and NBC News and the New York Times certainly qualify — considers important. Not to report the truth, but to shape public opinion. And they aren’t used to being questioned and challenged.
One final example, this from 2008. But it might very well be the most important one, as the Republican primaries draw nearer. Back then, CNN co-sponsored debates for the candidates on both sides — remember, 2008 was the first time we had no sitting president or vice-president running since… wow, 1928!. When the Democrats had their debates, several of the “undecided” voters turned out to be plants — Democratic activists or people associated with one of the candidate’s campaigns.
Then, a couple of weeks later, the Republicans had their debate. And CNN pulled the same thing. Several of their chosen “undecided” voters were Republican activists or people associated with some of the Republican campaigns.
Whoops, my bad. They were Democratic activists and people tied to Democratic candidates who were hand-picked by CNN to interrogate the Republican candidates during the debate over who would win the Republican nomination. In fact, it was 8 of 34.
The really funny part? CNN was actually doing the Democrats a disservice, and the Republicans a favor. But there’s no way in hell they realized it.
I repeat: this is what they do. When they say otherwise, they are lying. And anyone who believes them is a fool.
