by Mark Alexander: Democrats and their MSM PR outlets have spent the last four days feigning outrage over a report by Jeff Bezos’ tabloid, The Washington Post, regarding an alleged and disputed remark by Donald Trump. You know the one… As an update to our Friday post, “The Uncensored President and Press,” here is the real takeaway about that spurious claim, and the intended political result.
It was CNN that blew up this unverifiable claim, mentioning or displaying the word “s—thole” no less than 40 times last Thursday. Predictably, Anderson Cooper then set up the Democrats’ “racist” claim: “The president of the United States is tired of so many black people coming to this country.” CNN’s Chief Washington Correspondent and anchor, Jake Tapper, then ratcheted up the race-bait rhetoric: “You know who loved the [quote]? Racists. Racists such as David Duke [and] Richard Spencer [and] the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer…”
The rest of the mainstream media outlets then propagated the report and racist assertion as a matter of fact — just in time to coincide with upcoming MLK Day observances.
But on Friday morning, Tapper posted a “clarification,” which you have most likely not read: “The president did not refer to Haiti as a ‘s—thole’ country.‘” Tapper now claims, “There was a conflation of two different remarks by the president. When talking about 'temporary protected status’ countries as part of the immigration deal, it was mentioned that Salvadorans, Hondurans and Haitians have that status.” Tapper says his sources now say it was later when Trump allegedly made a remark about “s—thole countries” in a conversation related to Africa. That may or may not be true.
Of his revision about the alleged Trump remark, Tapper insisted: “This does not make what he said any more acceptable.” Unintentionally, that may be true, because if Trump didn’t say it, the erroneous reports about it are all just that. Of course, what Tapper was really implying is that the truth about what Trump said does not matter — all that matters is the MSM’s transparent promotion of the Democrat agenda.
As we noted Friday, that agenda is to frame Trump as a “racist” and then cast his immigration and border security plans as racist.
For the record, having to walk back the initial claim with the “conflation of the two” excuse would be sufficient grounds for any journalist with an ounce of integrity, and any other media outlet propagating the original claim, to issue a full and unconditional retraction. Of course, no journalist with an ounce of integrity would have reported this alleged remark in the first place, which is why no such retraction has been forthcoming from CNN or any other media outlets, because advancing the Democrat agenda trumps the truth.
But what is really newsworthy here is how the Leftmedia promotes the Democrat political agenda. This “s—thole” story is a case study in MSM propaganda.
A day after WaPo’s original report, they led with this “news”: “Trump’s comments about African countries and Haiti drew condemnation from around the world Friday, putting the White House and Republicans on the defensive while casting doubt on hopes of resolving disputes in the coming weeks over immigration legislation.”
No, MSM reporting of the alleged comments as fact drew condemnation … and cast doubts on immigration legislation — as intended. Mission accomplished!
This whole charade was orchestrated because the political future of the Democrat Party depends on the wholesale import of immigrants — a population they label as a “victim class,” which they can then exploit as a dependent identity constituency and a dependable voting bloc. As Democrats have veered further left, their working-class base has diminished. Rather than pivot their agenda back to the political center, they have doubled down on legal status for illegal immigrants, which is to say they have just been pandering to blue-collar Americans in order to maintain their power.
Saturday, Trump posted a comment confirming the obvious: “The Democrats are all talk and no action. They are doing nothing to fix DACA. … I don’t believe the Democrats really want to see a deal on DACA.” Of course they don’t.
To that end, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) concluded, “You can’t have an immigration compromise if everyone is out there calling the president a racist. They’re actually destroying the setting in which anything meaningful can happen on immigration. … Some people in the media have just gone completely bonkers with ad hominem [attacks] on the president.” Again, of course … that is the intended outcome!
Two conclusions about the “s—thole” case study: First, I am astounded at the growing number of Americans who absorb MSM hyperbole like sponges — “news” that is patently designed to sell advertising and advance political agendas. As for what Trump did or did not say, nobody actually knows, because nobody in the MSM filling the public opinion troughs actually knows. This is all conjecture being advanced as absolute fact.
The great danger here is that too many media consumers don’t have the ability to discern what is and, more importantly, what is not genuine and relevant “news.” These media addicts are like pieces of driftwood afloat in the currents of the MSM’s s—tstorms. While there are plenty of ignorant members of Congress and MSM talkingheads, the “s—thole” story and others like it are strategically framed by clever colluding political and media strategists, who are playing the American people for fools.
Second, it is dangerous when an alleged and disputed remark can be wildly propagated as absolute fact by the MSM across the board, with no regard for what was actually said, and every regard for advancing revenues and political agendas.
Jeff Bezos has converted the once-respected Washington Post into a cheap fake news tabloid. I personally find this distressing because, even though left of center in its reputable days, WaPo featured outstanding genuine journalism. No longer. In 2015, Bezos converted it into the PR platform for liar-Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, and it is now the Beltway’s Democrat propaganda flagship — a gross affront to the First Amendment that should concern all Americans.
~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/53445
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