Lamestream Media Double Standards and Fake News

[Anonymous]

Facebook and the Fact Checkers





Recently, Facebook took down Lara Trump's interview with former President Donald Trump, warning that Trump's content was banned on the platform. In doing this, Facebook made a new escalation in its censorship project.



First, Facebook took the position Trump could not post because his claims of election fraud, leading up to the events of Jan. 6, posed a clear and present danger to the peaceful transfer of power. Second, Facebook said Trump could not post at all, in a sense implying that even his future posts might pose a similar danger.



Now Facebook has taken it a step further by taking the position that even interviews with Trump conducted by others cannot be posted. Trump, let's remember, is still the leading figure in the Republican Party, the most prominent voice of opposition, and a potential candidate in the 2024 presidential race. And Facebook and other media platforms even seem bent on erasing Trump from history, as if America had a 44th president (Obama) and now a 46th president (Biden) but number 45 has been removed from public view.



I've had my own issues with Facebook, which I'd like to explore here, because they show how Facebook operates in flagging or restricting content. I've never been banned from Facebook, but I have been flagged, demonetized for periods of time, and had to endure—as I seem to be enduring now—some form of reduced distribution. This means Facebook limits who can see my posts.



And why? Last October I got demonetized because I posted a clip of Biden saying that Antifa was merely an idea. This was a direct quotation from Biden, from his debate with Trump. Facebook said that the clip was "missing context." But what context? Biden didn't say anything else about Antifa that I excluded. The clip was in no way deceptively edited. Even so, Facebook penalized me for posting it.



Right now I'm facing reduced Facebook distribution for a handful of posts that the platform has decided constitute misinformation or, again, "missing context." In one of them, I am faulted for posting a clip from my daily podcast in which I say that Kamala Harris is descended from a slave ancestor, Hamilton Brown, who owned five plantations and was one of the largest slaveowners in Jamaica.



I'm the one who broke this story. I got it from Kamala Harris's own father, Donald Harris, who claimed the slave ancestor in an article he wrote posted on Jamaica Global Online, a Jamaican website. I was also able to locate a genealogical tree that shows the Harris lineage.



When I first posted about this, my account was challenged by Nikole Hannah-Jones, writer of the 1619 Project, and historian Kevin Levin. Neither disputed Harris's lineage, but they blasted me for ignoring the common practice of rape on the plantation. This, they implied, is how Kamala Harris got her white slaveowning ancestor.



But these two critics were too lazy to check the genealogy I provided, showing that the grandson of the slaveowner, also named Hamilton Brown, had married a free woman of color named Jessian Prince, and this is the couple that gave birth to Christiana Brown, Donald Harris' grandmother and Kamala Harris' great grandmother. Rape on the plantation had nothing to do with it.



Chagrined, Hannah Jones deleted her tweet and Levin apologized for his mistaken attack on me. In effect, both of them acknowledged that my original post was right. Kamala Harris is in fact descended in a straight line from one of the largest planters in Jamaica, the man who gave his name to a whole town in Jamaica.



So how could Facebook claim I was mistaken? Facebook apparently takes its cue from so-called fact-checking sites. I decided to consult two prominent ones to see what they say. Politifact seems to confirm my account completely but then mysteriously concludes, "In the end we don't have enough documentation." Evidently a genealogical chart and Kamala Harris's own father's testimony does not seem to be enough.



If this seems strange, even stranger is what Snopes says on the subject, reviewing the exact same evidence but then declaring the claim "unproven." Then it adds this, "Even if it is the case that the Harris family, by way of Christiana Brown, are descendants of Hamilton Brown, those who seek to attack or undermine Harris for the wrongdoing of a man who died almost 200 years ago should first gain a better understanding of the complicated, traumatic histories of black families in the United States."



This is, of course, tendentious editorializing. Snopes seems to be covering for Harris here. So my conclusion is that these fact-checking sites are themselves untrustworthy. Had the same lineage applied to Trump, for instance, they would have been more than satisfied to confirm and broadcast his slaveholder lineage.



I'm not sure whether Facebook, in relying on partisan and tendentious fact-checking sites, is itself being duped by them, or whether Facebook has chosen to work with these sites so that they can provide ideological cover for Facebook removing or flagging content that is factual but that nevertheless disrupts Facebook's ideologically-preferred narrative.



Facebook and other social media platforms always strike the pose that they are combating "disinformation." But this claim itself strikes me as disinformation. If I post on Facebook that 2+2=5, will I get flagged? Probably not. How about if I post that Napoleon won the Battle of Waterloo? That's false, but will I get demonetized for it? Almost certainly not.



What this means is that Facebook isn't hunting down errors or misrepresentations per se. They are hunting down conservative claims that are damaging to the left's ideological narrative. In the case of Kamala Harris, the narrative is she is a historical victim. As a black woman, she's a "twofer," having endured a lineage of both racism and sexism. The slaveowner Hamilton Brown ruins that tale of victimhood.



I'm not saying Facebook doesn't have the right to regulate its own platform. I'm saying that they are doing it in an unfair and deceptive manner. They are taking facts and treating them as disinformation. They are relying on disinformation to invalidate truthful statements. In an Orwellian inversion, lies become truth and truth becomes lies.



How tragic it is that platforms that once symbolized freedom and open inquiry have now become frightening cauldrons of restriction, repression, and censorship. The very people who said they would save us from Orwell's Big Brother have become Big Brother.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/facebook-and-the-fact-checkers_3763985.html?utm_source=morningbriefnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2021-04-08&mktids=623ec727042b6873807a1e86e281bdf0&est=BNgWEYjrSH5Gw2kH8HKX9kVqrV5826BEJ1PT%2B8PYWMeWJdFSE2%2BgMeBHvl%2BexEPe4w%3D%3D">https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morni ... Pe4w%3D%3D">https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/facebook-and-the-fact-checkers_3763985.html?utm_source=morningbriefnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2021-04-08&mktids=623ec727042b6873807a1e86e281bdf0&est=BNgWEYjrSH5Gw2kH8HKX9kVqrV5826BEJ1PT%2B8PYWMeWJdFSE2%2BgMeBHvl%2BexEPe4w%3D%3D

Face it, Facebook facts are false.

[Anonymous]

Several current New York Times staffers were previously employed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-controlled English-language newspaper China Daily, which has in recent years paid U.S. media millions of dollars to publish its state-approved content.



Current employees at the New York Times who formerly worked for the Chinese state-run media outlet include; Jonah Kessel, Director of Cinematography at the Times; Diarmuid McDermott, a current Staff Editor and Designer at the outlet; and Europe culture reporter Alex Marshall, the National Pulse found.

[Anonymous]

Los Angeles Times gets torn to shreds for claiming that mispronouncing Asian names is 'casual racism'



'Some people really want to see racism everywhere'



The Los Angeles Times attempted to stir the proverbial pot this week by publishing an article titled: "The casual racism of mispronouncing an Asian person's name."



The motivation for the article stemmed from an incident at the L.A. theater community's Ovation Awards, where presenters accidentally mispronounced the name of an Asian-American nominee and mistakenly displayed a photo of the wrong actor.



"Asian actress Jully Lee, who was nominated for her performance in Jiehae Park's 'Hannah and the Dread Gazebo,' had her first name mispronounced while the nominees for best featured actress were read," Variety reported. "Additionally, a photo of a different Asian actress was mistakenly displayed on screen."



Commenters on the internet immediately dismissed and ridiculed the notion that unintentionally mispronouncing someone's name is "casual racism."



American Enterprise Institue resident scholar Christina Sommers said, "The silliness of the @LATimes."



Seattle radio host Jason Rantz reacted by saying, "People will likely mispronounce your name if they've never seen it or heard it before. It's not racism — casual or otherwise."



Actor Michael Rappaport simply wrote, "Wtf."



Rikki Ratliff, producer of The Glenn Beck Program, mocked the LA Times, "Believe it or not, my first name gets mispronounced all the time and I would like to report this hate crime."



Kira Davis, editor-at-large for RedState, proposed a solution, "Here's what you do...when someone says your name wrong - stay with me here - correct them. Racism defeated."



A commentator tweeted, "Not a single person on the planet is able to pronounce everyones else's name correctly, this is a ridiculously silly standard to try and set."



Someone joked, "BREAKING: People who speak English have issues pronouncing words in other languages."



An individual snarked, "What do you call it when people (of all races) mispronounce german or swiss or eastern european names?"



One person referred to his own difficulties correctly pronouncing names, "I have trouble pronouncing my Chinese wife's name correctly, much less the names of the countless Chinese friends and acquaintances I've had over the years. It takes a *very* long time for a non-native to master Chinese intonation. It's not racist to struggle with this."



A Twitter user pointed out, "I work with a dozen Indian programmers/QAs. None of them have ever pronounced my (very common in America) name correctly. I don't hold it against them, because I'm not a myopic narcissist."



One person stated, "Some people really want to see racism everywhere."



Someone said, "The people at LA times have no real problems."

https://www.theblaze.com/news/la-times-asian-names-racism?utm_source=theblaze-dailyAM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily-Newsletter__AM%202021-04-11&utm_term=ACTIVE%20LIST%20-%20TheBlaze%20Daily%20AM">https://www.theblaze.com/news/la-times- ... Daily%20AM">https://www.theblaze.com/news/la-times-asian-names-racism?utm_source=theblaze-dailyAM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily-Newsletter__AM%202021-04-11&utm_term=ACTIVE%20LIST%20-%20TheBlaze%20Daily%20AM

[Anonymous]

PolitiFact takes down 'fact check' that claimed Tucker Carlson promoted a 'conspiracy theory' about COVID-19.



A September 15, 2020, article written for PolitiFact by Daniel Funke asserted that Carlson, who hosts the most-watched program on cable network television, "aired a conspiracy theory that has been debunked since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic." The so-called conspiracy theory was that the SARS-CoV-2 virus does not occur in nature and was created in a virology lab, a hypothesis that is now gaining mainstream credibility with scientists and researchers who want to investigate the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.



On Monday, PolitiFact archived the fact-check and added the following editor's note:



When this fact-check was first published in September 2020, PolitiFact's sources included researchers who asserted the SARS-CoV-2 virus could not have been manipulated. That assertion is now more widely disputed. For that reason, we are removing this fact-check from our database pending a more thorough review. Currently, we consider the claim to be unsupported by evidence and in dispute. The original fact-check in its entirety is preserved below for transparency and archival purposes. Read our May 2021 report for more on the origins of the virus that causes COVID-19.

[Anonymous]

Epoch Times Rated Most Neutral Compared to NYT, AP, BBC, Bloomberg



In recent years, The Epoch Times has seen rapid growth, as demand for our independent reporting has grown. We want to thank you, our readers, for making this possible!



As an acknowledgment of our efforts to report the news honestly and without spin, we were heartened when we were recently made aware of a Blind Bias Survey conducted by AllSides in August 2020.



The survey conducted by this well-respected organization that monitors media bias found that those surveyed—2,000 respondents across the political spectrum—rated The Epoch Times' content as most center among the outlets examined.



AllSides gave the respondents a selection of front-page headlines and article text without revealing which media organization they came from.



The Epoch Times was rated as being more in the center (according to 64.26 percent of respondents) than The Associated Press (53.08 percent), the BBC (33.29 percent), Bloomberg (14.69 percent), and The New York Times (16.20 percent).

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/epoch-times-rated-most-neutral-compared-to-nyt-ap-bbc-bloomberg_3825294.html?utm_source=morningbriefnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2021-05-22&mktids=6edf554df7ba65a4613234a901da7ceb&est=vIiy0SSQ6gjo3v4q9sXJXVJa5qqqjupULhB1vI5b7MKFcK1Ej5Fqv9HT70lW%2BAB%2F8w%3D%3D">https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morni ... 2F8w%3D%3D">https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/epoch-times-rated-most-neutral-compared-to-nyt-ap-bbc-bloomberg_3825294.html?utm_source=morningbriefnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2021-05-22&mktids=6edf554df7ba65a4613234a901da7ceb&est=vIiy0SSQ6gjo3v4q9sXJXVJa5qqqjupULhB1vI5b7MKFcK1Ej5Fqv9HT70lW%2BAB%2F8w%3D%3D

[Anonymous]

HuffPo's White House correspondent says Capitol riot was '1000 percent worse' than 9/11.

[Anonymous]

The mainstream media did some major backpedaling this week on the potential origin of the coronavirus. After months of brushing off the possibility that COVID-19 escaped from a laboratory, left-wing journalists now admit that they are taking the Wuhan lab leak theory seriously, even after they said the theory was "debunked" months ago. Backtracking journalists are blaming former President Donald Trump and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) for the media previously dismissing the now-feasible lab leak theory.

https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1399089598530306049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1399089598530306049%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theblaze.com%2Fnews%2Fmedia-wuhan-lab-leak-theory-trump">https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/ ... eory-trump">https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1399089598530306049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1399089598530306049%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theblaze.com%2Fnews%2Fmedia-wuhan-lab-leak-theory-trump



Right, progs. It's Trump's fault investigative journalists didn't do their jobs.

[cc]

"Some things may be true even if Donald Trump said them"  



They don't have it in them to just say "we were very wrong all along"

[Anonymous]

"Some things may be true even if Donald Trump said them"  



They don't have it in them to just say "we were very wrong all along"

They can't do it.

[Anonymous]

Facebook Could Be Held Liable for Actions and Correspondence With Dr. Fauci



Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Facebook could be taken to court by those users that had their posts about the Wuhan lab (China's Wuhan Institute of Virology) leak censored, since recently disclosed emails from Dr. Anthony Fauci show there was correspondence between him and Mark Zuckerberg, after which Facebook started censoring such information.



"But these latest breakthroughs have real consequence because it is now clear that Facebook was operating at the direction of and in the direct benefit of the federal government and operating as the government censor, utilizing their monopoly position to censor on behalf of the government," Cruz told Maria Bartiromo the host of Fox News's, Sunday Morning Futures.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/ted-cruz-facebook-could-be-held-liable-for-actions-and-correspondence-with-dr-fauci_3848083.html?utm_source=morningbriefnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2021-06-08&mktids=29447cd0d129990641a23091bca96e03&est=CZRKQkLYmTwr9iP%2F3qw1oiHQ%2F22se7EdHTFg7EA2Cxin1yzLFpQBaknqIToR0kP6tg%3D%3D">https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morni ... P6tg%3D%3D">https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/ted-cruz-facebook-could-be-held-liable-for-actions-and-correspondence-with-dr-fauci_3848083.html?utm_source=morningbriefnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2021-06-08&mktids=29447cd0d129990641a23091bca96e03&est=CZRKQkLYmTwr9iP%2F3qw1oiHQ%2F22se7EdHTFg7EA2Cxin1yzLFpQBaknqIToR0kP6tg%3D%3D

[Anonymous]

After four years of magazine covers disparaging former President Donald Trump, Time magazine has offered up extremely glowing covers of President Joe Biden. The most recent cover of Time magazine features a flattering illustration of President Biden, which many online commenters ridiculed for being "sycophantic."



Several Twitter reactions put a spotlight on Biden waiving sanctions against the company that is building the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia into Germany. The pipeline would enable Russia to bypass Ukraine and freely flow natural gas into Europe. Previously, the Trump administration attempted to hinder the development of the pipeline so that Europe would purchase gas from the United States.



Former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell reacted by saying, "Giving him a pipeline of leverage into Europe is NOT taking him on. It's giving in."



Cliff Sims, a former senior adviser to the DNI, said, "Yea, Putin is quivering in his boots after Biden handed him his number one geopolitical infrastructure project on a platter so he can work with the Germans on climate change. What a joke."



Washington Examiner writer Jerry Dunleavy wrote, "Biden takes on [the Republicans, Democrats, Eastern European allies, Ukrainians, etc. who opposed the corrupt Kremlin-backed Nord Stream 2 pipeline which every honest person knows is a malign influence operation which will ultimately benefit] Putin."



"If by taking Putin on you mean allowing him to build his massive pipeline while shutting ours down," one Twitter user wrote.



National Review's Kyle Smith tweeted, "DNC press releases aren't this sycophantic."



An online commenter asked, "What in the hell kind of fan fiction comic book is this cover?"



One person stated, "TIME has to use photoshop to show Biden younger than Putin. Is this 'takes on?'"



Multiple Twitter users joked that "Biden can't even take on stairs, let alone Putin," referencing the time President Biden stumbled down the stairs leading up to Air Force One.



Young America's Foundation lampooned the laudatory press coverage of the Democratic president, "tHe MeDiA dOeSn'T PiCk SiDeS."



Real Clear Politics co-founder Tom Bevan showed the stark difference between Time magazine's gushing cover of Biden and a cover of Trump's face blended with Putin's.

https://twitter.com/TomBevanRCP/status/1403323768714432526?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1403324000462331910%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theblaze.com%2Fnews%2Ftime-magazine-biden-cover-reactions">https://twitter.com/TomBevanRCP/status/ ... -reactions">https://twitter.com/TomBevanRCP/status/1403323768714432526?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1403324000462331910%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theblaze.com%2Fnews%2Ftime-magazine-biden-cover-reactions



https://twitter.com/TIME/status/1403310280055078918?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1403310280055078918%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theblaze.com%2Fnews%2Ftime-magazine-biden-cover-reactions">https://twitter.com/TIME/status/1403310 ... -reactions">https://twitter.com/TIME/status/1403310280055078918?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1403310280055078918%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theblaze.com%2Fnews%2Ftime-magazine-biden-cover-reactions

[Thiel]

After four years of magazine covers disparaging former President Donald Trump, Time magazine has offered up extremely glowing covers of President Joe Biden. The most recent cover of Time magazine features a flattering illustration of President Biden, which many online commenters ridiculed for being "sycophantic."



Several Twitter reactions put a spotlight on Biden waiving sanctions against the company that is building the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia into Germany. The pipeline would enable Russia to bypass Ukraine and freely flow natural gas into Europe. Previously, the Trump administration attempted to hinder the development of the pipeline so that Europe would purchase gas from the United States.



Former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell reacted by saying, "Giving him a pipeline of leverage into Europe is NOT taking him on. It's giving in."



Cliff Sims, a former senior adviser to the DNI, said, "Yea, Putin is quivering in his boots after Biden handed him his number one geopolitical infrastructure project on a platter so he can work with the Germans on climate change. What a joke."



Washington Examiner writer Jerry Dunleavy wrote, "Biden takes on [the Republicans, Democrats, Eastern European allies, Ukrainians, etc. who opposed the corrupt Kremlin-backed Nord Stream 2 pipeline which every honest person knows is a malign influence operation which will ultimately benefit] Putin."



"If by taking Putin on you mean allowing him to build his massive pipeline while shutting ours down," one Twitter user wrote.



National Review's Kyle Smith tweeted, "DNC press releases aren't this sycophantic."



An online commenter asked, "What in the hell kind of fan fiction comic book is this cover?"



One person stated, "TIME has to use photoshop to show Biden younger than Putin. Is this 'takes on?'"



Multiple Twitter users joked that "Biden can't even take on stairs, let alone Putin," referencing the time President Biden stumbled down the stairs leading up to Air Force One.



Young America's Foundation lampooned the laudatory press coverage of the Democratic president, "tHe MeDiA dOeSn'T PiCk SiDeS."



Real Clear Politics co-founder Tom Bevan showed the stark difference between Time magazine's gushing cover of Biden and a cover of Trump's face blended with Putin's.

https://twitter.com/TomBevanRCP/status/1403323768714432526?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1403324000462331910%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theblaze.com%2Fnews%2Ftime-magazine-biden-cover-reactions">https://twitter.com/TomBevanRCP/status/ ... -reactions">https://twitter.com/TomBevanRCP/status/1403323768714432526?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1403324000462331910%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theblaze.com%2Fnews%2Ftime-magazine-biden-cover-reactions



https://twitter.com/TIME/status/1403310280055078918?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1403310280055078918%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theblaze.com%2Fnews%2Ftime-magazine-biden-cover-reactions">https://twitter.com/TIME/status/1403310 ... -reactions">https://twitter.com/TIME/status/1403310280055078918?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1403310280055078918%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theblaze.com%2Fnews%2Ftime-magazine-biden-cover-reactions

I saw that cover and laughed.

[Anonymous]

Youtube said "We remove videos in accordance with our COVID-19 medical misinformation policies, which don't allow content that encourages people to use Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin to treat or prevent the virus."

[cc]

I realize that is not a funny thing



But I do find it funny that T still lives in prog heads 24 / 7

[Anonymous]

Youtube said "We remove videos in accordance with our COVID-19 medical misinformation policies, which don't allow content that encourages people to use Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin to treat or prevent the virus."

Many countries use them.