Pravda became an official publication, or “organ”, of the ruling Soviet Communist Party. Pravda became the conduit for announcing official policy and policy changes and would remain so until 1991.
— Wikipedia

Throw out the First Amendment’s protection for journalists who were tasked with being government watchdogs. They’re now mostly utilized as lapdogs eagerly drooling to stay part of the privileged in-crowd and benefit from the generous salaries that come with such exposure. We’ve seen them often commit the worse of journalism violations (bias-by-omission) and they’re expected to do it yet again.

Normally, these kind of Democrat courtesy requests aren’t made public….

“It’s time for the media to ramp up its scrutiny of House Republicans for opening an impeachment inquiry based on lies,” Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the White House Counsel’s Office, wrote in the letter, according to a draft copy obtained by CNN.

The letter, which said an impeachment inquiry with no supporting evidence should “set off alarm bells for news organizations,” will be sent to executives helming the nation’s largest news organizations, including CNN, The New York Times, Fox News, the Associated Press, CBS News, and others, a White House official familiar with the matter said.
— CNN, 9/12/23

Now THIS is quite the dossier of cut-and-pastable talking points.

We all know today’s media needs to be spoon-fed with tips other than what they find, sitting on their asses, from social media or other news sites.

The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns. That’s a sea change. They literally know nothing.
— Ben Rhodes, Obama deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, 5/8/16

That said, many of the usual suspects are dutifully obeying in lockstep.

Since gaining the House majority in January, House Republicans have aggressively investigated Biden and his son, claiming without evidence that they engaged in an influence-peddling scheme. The allegations echo those that former President Donald Trump has made for years against Biden and his family.
— Associated Press, 9/12/23

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins and New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman repeatedly noted there’s “no evidence” to support claims made by ex-President Donald Trump and Republicans to justify impeaching President Joe Biden.
— Mediaite, 9/13/23

Republicans claim they have unearthed evidence of wrongdoing by the president and his family that could rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors. In fact, there’s little to back up their allegations.
— New York Times, 9/12/23

Months of Republican allegations and investigations into President Biden have led to the GOP-controlled House of Representatives launching an impeachment inquiry. Republicans have lobbed unsubstantiated allegations against Biden since taking over the House, but have turned up no evidence of wrongdoing so far.
— PBS, 9/12/23

‘Hi, this is Kevin McCarthy and you have reached the House Republicans. We can’t come to the phone right now because we’ve launched an evidence-free impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden!’
— USA Today, 9/12/23

The House has voted to impeach just three Presidents: Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump, who was impeached twice. But even the launch of an impeachment inquiry against a President has only happened a handful of times. Two impeachment experts tell TIME that there is less evidence implicating Biden of wrongdoing than in any of those previous inquiries.
— TIME, 9/12/23

Republicans, who now narrowly control the House, have accused Biden of profiting while he served as vice president from 2009 to 2017 from his son Hunter Biden’s foreign business ventures. But a 2020 Senate investigation and several months of digging by House Republicans this year have failed to turn up evidence of wrongdoing by Biden.
— Reuters, 9/12/23

Thanks in part to official revelations from the Durham Report, most of the informed electorate knows many of the allegations that dogged President Donald Trump were fictitious, malevolent, and the media dutifully repeated those allegations despite a lack of direct evidence that Trump and those in his orbit did anything wrong, let alone anything treasonous. But the media did the job and a large portion of Americans still believe Trump colluded with the Russians to steal the 2020 election from Hillary Clinton just because Jake Tapper and Rachel Maddow said so. To this day, millions of Americans still don’t know what was on Hunter Biden’s laptop and believe it’s irrelevant because mostly “right-wing” media is talking about it.

This appears to be the strategy of White House warroomers like Sams who want those who watch the Today Show and The View to get from any impeachment inquiries.

It will be an interesting exercise in human behavior to watch if those who are told to do something will actually obey and if there are those who’ll behave like petulant teenagers who do the opposite of what they’re told because that’s how the wiring works….

Just before the 2020 election, Joe Biden and his campaign said his son Hunter hadn’t made money from China — and that Biden hadn’t met one of Hunter’s Ukrainian business associates while he was vice president, except for maybe a brief hello.

Both of those claims were false, according to recent sworn testimony by Hunter Biden and his business partner, Devon Archer.
— Axios, 9/13/23

It’s not clear if Sam’s memo is in reaction to this Axios piece, but if the media has finally grown tired of lying for the Biden administration, it could make for some interesting viewing once the inquiry starts rolling. The media may have to explain to their consumers why they didn’t report on these facts years ago and why the “there’s no evidence” excuse will be regarded, going forward, as the bullshit lie it always was.

Asked about the conflicting accounts of Biden’s comments in 2020, an aide said: “As the president said at the time when he was defending himself against Donald Trump’s torrent of lies — and as he’s said since — he didn’t discuss Hunter’s business dealings with him and wasn’t in business with his son.”
— CNN, 9/12/23

Again, the Durham Report mostly concluded that almost everyone involved with election interference and subsequent cover-up have gone unpunished, “intelligence officials” certified lies to protect Biden in 2020, and the media near-effectively censored information that kept a good portion of the nation from casting an informed vote.

A vote that has had severe repercussions financially and security-wise for the nation.

In its letter Wednesday, the White House will ask news organizations to be more clear-eyed in their coverage of the impeachment inquiry, and not to fall prey to the traps of false equivalency in reporting.

“Covering impeachment as a process story – Republicans say X, but the White House says Y – is a disservice to the American public who relies on the independent press to hold those in power accountable,” Sams wrote.

“And in the modern media environment, where every day liars and hucksters peddle disinformation and lies everywhere from Facebook to Fox, process stories that fail to unpack the illegitimacy of the claims on which House Republicans are basing all their actions only serve to generate confusion, put false premises in people’s feeds, and obscure the truth,” Sams added.
— CNN, 9/12/23

Rush Limbaugh often aired montages of media people using the same words and/or “action lines” after clearly coordinated directives coming from a Democrat West Wing were heeded. Sams’ directives are nothing really earthshattering or new. But after years of being told “the border is secure” or “inflation is transitory” or Biden’s staff has a hard time keeping up with him, it will be a tall task to expect all of the media to obey and look the other way.

Stating the obvious, impeachment is serious shit and millions of people will start to pay attention. When they do, some will begin to see what’s been hidden from them because the Democrats and their media believed them to be stupid enough to fall for the spin. Liberals can tend to turn when what little intelligence they do have is insulted.

There are still the ol’ reliables.

The Republican House-led investigations into Biden have yet to provide any direct evidence that the president financially benefited from Hunter Biden’s career overseas.
— CNN, 9/12/23

CNN ended with that little “Okay, massah. I’z do what I’z told”.

That “direct evidence” caveat was gleefully blown off when it came to “Russian Collusion” or the “improper phone call” based on hearsay regarding Ukraine, or even now when states are trying to remove Donald Trump from state ballots because they claim he violated the 25th Amendment for staging an insurrection while NOT ONE of the charges against him is for… wait for it… insurrection.

Trump’s not been charged with insurrection because all who’ve seen the unedited portion of his January 6 rally speech know he never suggested violence or insurrection. And now the Biden White House is obviously worried that Biden’s constant string of lies will be revealed to the world over the coming weeks and months at the same time partisan district attorneys will be trying Donald Trump during the heat of the campaign season.

Even should Joe Biden not be the 2024 Democrat standard bearer, his successor will have to answer for whatever aid and comfort he or she gave those lies; ignorance will be a lame excuse and should be a disqualifier.

Unfortunately for the media, Americans do understand enough about basic business to know in order to receive payment for goods, you have to have goods to sell. Aside from the “brand”, the Bidens haven’t done much to have millions sent to their multiple “businesses” and bank accounts, and it’s even laughable for even a loyal Chris Hayes viewer to assume all that money came in and “The Big Guy” didn’t get a taste.

The pushback will be well-deserved and brutal.

Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., called out U.K. Channel 4 Washington correspondent Siobhan Kennedy on Tuesday for claiming that Americans “can’t see” evidence that President Biden has committed wrongdoing worthy of impeachment.
— Fox News, 9/12/23

The desperation from the Biden administration comes from an obvious reaction of guilt. We’ll see how further down the media’s credibility will sink to cover for a corrupt president and his family of leeches.

USA Today: New book says Tom Brady has ‘had enough’ of Bill Belichick
ESPN: New book says Brady long worried about being ‘pushed out’ by Belichick
Mass Live: Brady-Belichick relationship improved after rumblings of drama
Golf Digest: Things were so bad between Brady and Belichick in 2018 that Belichick was reportedly considering vacancies in Miami, New York, and Washington

Yes, Golf Digest….

New York Post: Belichick wouldn’t meet Brady face-to-face when QB left: book
ESPN: The story behind the split of Brady, Belichick and the Patriots
Boston Herald: Alex Guerrero: Belichick didn’t evolve with Brady in New England
SB Nation: The Patriots’ Tom Brady vs. Bill Belichick feud, explained
Sportsnet: Feud between Brady, Belichick, Kraft similar to lover’s quarrel
Sporting News: Souring relationship with Belichick and other signs from the past
Boston Herald: Belichick refused to meet Brady to say goodbye, per report
USA Today: Belichick denies refusing to meet Brady upon exit from Patriots
New York Post: Brady can stick it to Belichick in what will be game for the ages
Musketfire: A history of Belichick’s track record without Brady at quarterback

After his final retirement from the game, the two sat down in an insightful interview that put to rest the false media narrative that their relationship was strained. Turns out, it was anything but that….

The credibility of the media has been reduced to a bad late-night program punchline, especially as they continue to blow off the traditional rule in journalism that forbids the use of anonymous sources. And never forget that attention-seekers in the craft will make shit up and not be banished from the profession.

The Boston Herald sports writer who reported the New England Patriots taped a pre-Super Bowl walkthrough by the St. Louis Rams in 2002 said he will regret the erroneous story for the rest of his life.

“First and foremost, this is about a writer breaking one of the cardinal rules of journalism. I failed to keep challenging what I had been told. I should not have written the story without seeing the tape or getting multiple, firsthand confirmations from members of the organization,” wrote John Tomase in Friday’s editions of the newspaper.
— NFL.com, 5/16/08

Tom Brady and Bill Belichick have always had a respectful and professional relationship that has evolved into a great friendship as well.

Something the media can’t diminish no matter how much they tried.

USA Today said it has deleted 23 articles from its website after an investigation found that the reporter who wrote them used fabricated sources. The journalist who is said to have used the fabricated sources was identified as Gabriela Miranda, a breaking news reporter who resigned from the Virginia-based newspaper weeks ago, the paper confirmed Thursday.
— New York Post, 6/16/22

One could blame this latest example of journalism malfeasance on the lazy youth, but we also know some of the experienced have fallen, and some have been allowed to get back up.

Here’s the latest tally of lying journalists provided by the self-policing media….

15 Of The Most Disgraced Journalists In The World
10 journos caught fabricating
The Top 12 Journalism Scandals Since 2000
Winner of CNN’s ‘Journalist of the Year’ Award Admits He Fabricated Stories
Journalists Who Were Caught Lying

At least one instance was immortalized….

New Republic reporter Stephen Glass was caught lying for three solid years, writing articles about events and human beings that never existed. Glass, the associate editor at the time, was fired by in the summer of 1998 and became the subject of the Hayden Christensen movie “Shattered Glass”.
— Ranker, 10/4/21

Again, these are only the instances of journalistic dishonesty we know of and that’s been reported: take their word for it.

These are the same people who believe it’s their job to tear down those who violate societal and/or political norms but when they intentionally mislead, their publications either issue muted corrections or delete pieces altogether to cover inconvenient tracks.

Being a journalist is an immense responsibility best left to those who observe classic professional ethics and proven integrity. Two qualifications that is clearly lacking today and there doesn’t appear to be much that can assure the public that the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth is something guaranteed to come from the media.

Americans who received a stimulus check from the federal government also are getting something else in the mail: a letter from President Donald Trump.

A one-page letter from Trump started arriving over the weekend in the mailboxes of millions of Americans who received stimulus payments of up to $1,200 under a new law designed to help the economy recover from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

Time for a lifeline….

A former taxpayer advocate at the Internal Revenue Service called the letter “unbelievable” and said it makes the agency “look like it is the handmaiden of one administration and one party.”
— USA Today, 4/29/20

Take a look at the letter sent from the White House, signed by the sitting President of the United States; the same president who signed the CARES Act authorizing payments sent directly to Americans, and see if you can find the “unbelievable” tone that makes the agency look like “the handmaiden of one administration and one party.”

The president obviously neglected to have the IRS slip in the word “Republican”.

Collins reached out to one person to certify what must have been some nitpick outrage. That person was Nina Olsen.

“This will harm the IRS and its ability to appear nonpolitical and nonpartisan,” said Nina Olson, executive director of the Center for Taxpayer Rights. “If I were there, I would be strongly advocating against this.”

We don’t recall ever hearing Olson publicly excoriate the Obama administration, not only after the revelations of IRS official Lois Lerner’s targeting conservative groups, her lost-and-found 30,000 missing emails or former Obama Commissioner John Koskinen’s obstruction that stunk of monumental cover-up. The response from her “watchdog” agency response (at the time) was rather subdued and in no way reflected the public outrage.

“To promote voluntary compliance with the tax laws, the IRS must be impartial both in fact and in appearance. The revelation that the IRS used ‘tea party’ and similar labels to select tax-exemption applicants for further review, even if intended solely as a workload management tool, has created the appearance that the IRS was not impartial. It is imperative the IRS move quickly to regain the public’s trust and take steps to prevent this kind of incident from happening again.”
— Taxpayer Advocate Service, 2014 Special Report

Ouch.

Seeing how Lerner escaped any kind of real punishment (early retirement doesn’t count), it’s not clear which steps were taken to “regain the public’s trust and take steps to prevent this kind of incident from happening again.”

This whole letter thing appears to be yet another narrative created to poke President Trump and one concurring quote was found.

It remains to be seen when Mr. Collins will find and quote Americans who received a check and letter, ready to go on the record and bitch about receiving much-needed relief.

Instead of debating ideas, the left and right are demanding that anyone who annoys them be cast out of polite society.

Sarah Silverman has been canceled. A Hollywood director fired the progressive comedian because of a sketch she performed a dozen years ago.

“I recently was going to do a movie … a sweet part,” Silverman said on a podcast this month. “Then, at 11 p.m. the night before, they fired me because they saw a picture of me in blackface from that episode.”

The first line in this USA Today opinion piece by this Jon Gabriel is an insult to anyone who’s been paying attention. It says alot about what he assumes about their audience.

Cancel culture is spreading for one simple reason: It works. Instead of debating ideas or competing for entertainment dollars, you can just demand that anyone who annoys you be cast out of polite society.

Way back in the mists of time, say five years ago, if you didn’t like a TV show or movie, you wouldn’t watch it. Now you can ensure that no one watches it, just by slinging some outrage on social media.

Actually, that’s what conservatives do. When actors, musicians, and athletes insult us (and they do a lot lately), we stop watching their television shows, movies, turn off their games and stop buying their music. We don’t seek to banish them into oblivion, primarily because it doesn’t work. Liberals can do some of the most heinous things in society and still manage to get work. They can sexually assault, beat their wives, drive drunk, plagiarize, say racist things on camera, even call a vice presidential candidate a “cunt” and you’ll still see them on our televisions, movie screens, on the field and on our radios.

Conversely, morally superior progressives will seek the professional destruction of any conservative who crosses a moral line and most of the time, it works.

Our woke mentality is America’s new Puritanism. Instead of a handy list of sins written thousands of years ago, modern sins are ever-changing. A joke that was deemed progressive a decade ago is retroactively condemned as hate speech.

This climate is a liberal creation, embraced by the left when conservatives could be bullied. Bon appetit!

“If you say the wrong thing,” Silverman said, “everyone is, like, throwing the first stone. It’s a perversion. It’s really, ‘Look how righteous I am, and now I’m going to press refresh all day long to see how many likes I get in my righteousness.’”

There is nothing “new” about this. The left is now lamenting on, like many other things, how their tables have been turned back on them. Poor babies.

They cheered when Roseanne Barr lost her job over some not-so-well-thought-through Tweets, not to mention notable casualties like Don Imus, Paula Deen, and Bill O’Reilly. Meanwhile Democrat Ralph “blackface” Northam got a pass and is still in the Virginia governor’s mansion simply because he gave the finger to those who demanded he go away.

Anytime the social media lynch mob of anonymous trolls can beat a target into a whimpering mess, begging for forgiveness, that may not even be enough. Some will just tell you to kill yourself. But when liberals are busted, like during the Bill Clinton – Monica Lewinsky adultery scandal, the left defended him by saying “Everybody does it.” In this case, no, everybody doesn’t do this. It’s almost exclusively from those on the unhinged left who are still in full punish mode after the last presidential election and they flushed all sense of civility down the toilet.

But alas, it’s happening to Hollywood liberals and their overpaid careers are in potential jeopardy, the standard “That’s not who I am” response is not enough, so now it’s something we ALL need to talk about.

It’s time for the perpetually offended on the left and right to bring back two concepts the Puritans were at least familiar with: grace and forgiveness.
— USA Today, 8/20/19

It’s always a “left and right” problem when the liberal boomerang comes back and hits them in the head, but the left very seldom forgives and forgets unless it’s one of their own and they gleefully make it hurt.

So, nice try but not this time. It’s their bed; they can lay in it.

Donald Trump, at a news conference in New York City, being pulled (kicking and screaming) to respond to media demands on where he put millions of dollars raised for veteran charities. Of course, aside from his begrudgingly answering their questions, the media had to endure the multiple indignities of having their profession and integrity being attacked, and those attacks were directed and taken very personally.

CNN: Trump launches all-out attack on the press
Washington Post: Donald Trump declares war on the press
Yahoo: Trump showboats attacks on ‘dishonest’ US media
NBC News: Trump Lashes Out At Media While Detailing Vets Fundraiser
US News & World Report: Trump Lambasts the Media
PBS: Trump attacks media for questioning his donations to vets
UK Daily Mail: Trump showboats attacks on ‘dishonest’ US media
The Hill: Trump’s press feud boils over
BBC: Trump lambasts media for questioning veteran donations
NY Times: Donald Trump Lashes Out at Media While Detailing Gifts to Veterans
USA Today: Donald Trump’s attacks on the news media: A not-so-short history

The skin is quite thin within the media elite and it’s going to take a long time for the ego bruises to heal.

Does anyone know of ONE media outlet that’s asked if Hillary Clinton has donated one dollar to a veteran cause or is it okay for her to only be on the receiving end?

Over the years, the media has gone out-of-their-way to attack the political, financial, and personal lives of whomever they’ve wished. Most of the time, those who’ve been victims of the pressure have little recourse because of the media’s 1st Amendment privilege, and you can clearly hear the worry by some that they may actually have to be careful of what they present to the people as “news” because someone is finally pointing the finger back at them!

Trump was not “bullying” these people because they demanded answers on his vet donations. He was not “avoiding scrutiny.” He answered their questions. He’s got these 27-year-old young journalists out there, and all he was pointing out is, “Where is the scrutiny of Mrs. Clinton? Where is the same scrutiny of Democrat candidates?” That’s one of the many things that I heard in that press conference.
— Rush Limbaugh, 6/1/15

The problem is the media has arrogantly gone about their “business” for years, selectively applying scrutiny, creative and deceptive editing, repeating false narratives that Republicans had to spend valuable time and expense disproving, bias by omission, and this is no new phenomenon that just arose with the candidacy of Donald Trump.

There are websites devoted exclusively to media bias and errors, exposing partisan, false information routinely disseminated to the general public for decades.

Whether we’re talking about the Friday-before-the-election 2000 Bush DUI effort, the “fake but accurate” standard set by Dan Rather, the selective editing of 911 calls, journalists running interference for their preferred candidate during debates, some rape reporting requiring less fact-checking while some rapists are vigorously defended, sometimes the media asks “where’s the money” while other times not appearing to care, and there are dozens more national examples while we have no idea of how bad the problem is on the local end. We’ve had “journalists” lie to our faces on numerous occasions and they’re STILL working, but yet they’re all so sensitive when THEIR integrity is oh-so-viciously questioned by Donald Trump.

When does the media get to determine what the proper timeline is to hand out money to a charity? When does the media get to determine what the right and wrong thing to do is on anything? Who are they? Are they the arbiters of virtue? Have they never made a misstep? It’s the thing that’s always bugged me. These people get to sit in total judgment on everybody else. You try to turn it around on them. “You can’t do that, we’re journalists.”

Yeah, why is that any different? We can’t look at your past, find out how many illegitimate kids you might have had, how many DUIs you’ve got, how many women you might have had knocked up in college, we’re not allowed to find that out? “No, you’re not, I’m a journalist. My life is irrelevant. It’s not part of the story.” Well, it ought to be. You’re out there making claims on everybody else’s misbehaving. If you’re gonna set yourself up as the arbiter of propriety and morality and goodness and decency and all this stuff, let’s see how you fall into it. But they don’t want any part of it.
— Rush Limbaugh, 6/1/16

High-and-mighty “journalists” insist they’re objective: an assertion we’ve laughed at many times before because you can’t objectively report news while your objective is to “make a difference”.

Unfortunately, their biases are reflected in their reporting and Trump’s warning that they may have to get used to being called out publicly means that many in the media may have a greater incentive to help Hillary Clinton (who has yet to have a press conference in 2016) get elected so they won’t have to be subjected to such harsh disrespect.

The media can dish it but can’t take it. You think that’s a weakness Donald Trump is going to exploit as long as it’s dangling in front of him… and with a fair amount of glee?