Wednesday, May 17, 2017

BloggeRhythms

As mentioned here often before, the ongoing leftward movement of Fox News has been quite obvious. Since the forced resignation of Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly’s departure other signs have appeared, such as the rise of Geraldo Rivera, Juan Williams, Martha McCallum and the return of Bob Beckel.  

And now, Rupert Murdoch  is apparently concerned whereas according to Lisa de Moraes @deadline.com, he’ll “rally the Fox News troops on Wednesday, unveiling plans to renovate its second-floor newsroom in Manhattan and “talk about moving the company forward, and its future.”

Although no further information was provided about Murdoch’s intentions, Chris Ariens reported in adweek.com’s “Scoreboard: Monday, May 15” that “Fox News eked out a first-place total-viewer finish in primetime this past Monday, but only 2,000 viewers ahead of MSNBC (2.53M vs. 2.528M). But, FNC finished third in primetime in the news demo, 25-54, with 499K viewers, well behind CNN’s 608K and MSNBC’s winning 662K viewers. Last week, FNC topped all of cable in primetime and total day in total viewers.”

Aside from Fox's slide, another point made here frequently was confirmed by political activist and commentator Pamela Geller, who wrote back on April 28, 2017 in the Geller Report: “The only place for Conservatives to get our news is online.”

Proving that Ms Geller’s observation regarding Conservative online news is certainly accurate, Joel B. Pollak wrote @breitbart.com that: “Democrats and the mainstream media are hyping allegations that President Donald Trump revealed classified information to the Russian foreign minister as “the most serious breach of national security” by any president.”

And then, using the Democrat/MSM allegations as his basis for comparative analysis, Mr. Pollak went on to cite numerous examples of where the Obama administration performed in exactly the same manner or at times, far worse.   

“Former CIA Director Leon Panetta, for example, told CNN on Tuesday that Trump “cannot just say whatever the hell he wants and expect it doesn’t carry consequences.” 

“Panetta should know, because it was his loose talk after the Osama bin Laden raid that exposed a Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, who helped locate the Al Qaeda leader.  As a result, Afridi was imprisoned on fabricated charges and will live under fear of assassination for the rest of his life. 

“As Breitbart News noted in 2013, a Pakistani report on Dr. Afridi reportedly concluded “Dr. Afridi was implicated by a ‘statement by the U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who was the CIA Director when May 2 happened, confirming the role of Dr. Afridi in making the U.S. assassination mission a success.'” 

“Panetta did not reveal that critical intelligence in a private meeting with a foreign emissary, but to the entire world, on CBS News’ 60 Minutes.” 

In another case, Jeffrey Kushner recalled in the Washington Times: “On May 3, at an event in Washington, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. did the unthinkable: He publicly revealed the identity of the special-operations unit responsible for bin Laden’s killing. His reckless action put at risk the lives of every member of SEAL Team 6.” 

“The response came on August 6, 2011, when the Taliban shot down a Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan, killing 30 soldiers. Among the dead: 15 members of SEAL Team 6. Years later, the fallen heroes’ families remain outraged at the Obama administration: “In releasing their identity, they put a target on their backs,” one of the fathers told U.S. News and World Report in 2013. 

“What makes the Obama administration’s leaks on the bin Laden raid the worst of all was that they were made to further his re-election campaign. Lives were lost and destroyed for Barack Obama’s personal political ambitions. 

“The Obama administration chose to reveal classified information on a number of other occasions. It released information about the interrogation methods used with terrorists; claimed credit for the Stuxnet virus, exposing our Israeli intelligence partners in the process; and ordered the U.S. intelligence community to share information with the Cuban regime. All of these are far worse than what Trump reportedly shared. (Update: Sean Davis of the Federalist notes that Obama pardoned the Stuxnet leaker before leaving office in January.)

And then Mr. Pollak concludes his article by reiterating what has by now become a glaringly obvious truth regarding what was once journalism: “But for the media and the left, Obama had to be protected at all costs. And Trump is the worst — by definition.” 

In a different take on the same subject, James Delingpole also @breitbart.com, writes: “In September last year, cartoonist Scott Adams “caused more liberal heads to explode by publicly switching his allegiance from Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump.” 

“And now he’s “gone full-on climate denialist in his latest Dilbert strip, causing liberal heads to explode.” 

Some of his old fans just aren’t happy at this betrayal of The Cause: 



What was eye-catching about the article was Mr. Delingpole’s observation that one of cartoonist Adam’s “cannier insights was that Trump’s bluster is actually a sign of emotional intelligence and deal-making skills rather than a sign – as the progressives continue to believe – that he is a dangerous lunatic.” 

In explanation, Mr. Adam’s offers similar thoughts to one’s presented here frequently in the past: “Trump “paces” the public – meaning he matches them in their emotional state, and then some. He does that with his extreme responses on immigration, fighting ISIS, stop-and-frisk, etc. Once Trump has established himself as the biggest bad-ass on the topic, he is free to “lead,” which we see him do by softening his deportation stand, limiting his stop-and-frisk comment to Chicago, reversing his first answer on penalties for abortion, and so on. If you are not trained in persuasion, Trump looks scary. If you understand pacing and leading, you might see him as the safest candidate who has ever gotten this close to the presidency. That’s how I see him.” 

Thus, what’s transpiring is that slowly but surely some very intelligent individuals are beginning to grasp the significant differences between successful, pragmatic business operatives and politicians. 

And as the awareness grows, the magnitude of Mr. Adam’s final thought will attain the value it should, whereas: “If you understand pacing and leading, you might see [Trump] as the safest candidate who has ever gotten this close to the presidency.” 

That’s it for today folks. 

Adios

No comments:

Post a Comment