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'If It Is True'
Townhall.com ^ | January 27, 2019 | Bruce Bialosky

Posted on 01/27/2019 6:16:36 AM PST by Kaslin

Never in the history of the country has there been a more dangerous and damning statement.

Yet, based on a report from one publication that has had a problematic past, the Press of America was ready to bring down a duly-elected president based on: “If It Is True.”

It is questionable whether the American public would tolerate this thinly-veiled maneuver so the Trump-haters had to have real ammunition.   They got it Thursday night January 17th at 10:11 P.M. when BuzzFeed released a story that caused even people like myself to be knocked back on their heels.  Trump purportedly had told Michael Cohen, his attorney, to perjure himself in front of Congress.  The report caused a firestorm because “IF IT IS TRUE,” then Democrats would have what they need -- an actual crime with which to impeach Trump.  

The next day virtually every MSM publication carried the story.  They did not wait to validate the facts.  The story was covered as if the facts were real, but they included those now magic words or some version, “If It Is True.”  Every major publication sent battalions of reporter out to verify the story, but none could.  Yet Democrats had a field day because they now had Trump by the throat.  When asked by the Press they used the Press’s own language – “IF IT IS TRUE.”  

I was baffled.  I questioned that Trump had put something like that in an email.  Others picked apart BuzzFeed’s story and the credibility of the authors.  John Santucci of ABC News stated contradicting BuzzFeed “In all our reporting, I haven’t found any in the Trump Org that have met with or been interviewed by Mueller.”   The authors had not even seen the underlying evidence or had they.  They could not agree.   Andrew McCarthy, a former U.S. attorney and the go-to guy for me and so many others on these legal matters, said he could not believe it because Mueller would have charged Cohen with that when he had charged him.

Then as you know, the Special Counsel's office came out and said the story is false.  And the MSM melted along with the Trump-haters.   The furor subsided, or did it?   Ben Smith, editor-in-chief, did not falter in the face of the pressure of an unprecedented press release by the Special Counsel denying the story Mr. Smith had published.  Did he release documents validating the article?  Did he bring forward the two government officials who supposedly were sources?  In the ultimate act of hubris, he told the Special Cousel to prove BuzzFeed was wrong.   Then the legion of Trump-haters started parsing the Special Counsel's statement as if it was not a complete disabusing of the BuzzFeed story.  

The new criteria for our press to run with a story has become “IF IT IS TRUE.”  It does not matter where the report comes from or the seriousness of the claim.   The MSM has become an echo chamber for anything anti-Trump.  This one though was a behemoth story, published with no validation and once again our press is sadly embarrassed. They did not have to run the story, however, as the Wall Street Journal did not touch the report in its print addition.

Don’t think that this is over.  Adam Schiff (D-CA), the new chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, says this needs to be investigated.  Lawrence Tribet former Harvard professor and a regular Tweeter of Trump Hysteria, is still advocating immediate impeachment along with others like Billionaire Gone Wild, Tom Steyer.  

“Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party” lived for over 60 years as the most damning statement/inquiry ever made in our history.  Though it was made by powerful people in our government, it was barely echoed in the Press.   The Press ended up fighting the implications of the question.  Today the press has started the use of “IF IT IS TRUE” and then amplified it.   The elected officials just copied the phrase and went along.

A justification used for Trump Impeachment is his abuse of our Constitution even though it is unclear how he has done such.  This is actual abuse of our Constitution.  Our Press has abused the First Amendment and degraded itself in a manner that will permanently harm the value of a free press and thus our First Amendment rights.  And yet there is not one person being fired or quitting in shame – are you listening Chuck Todd?

We live in dangerous times if this is not disavowed and never used again.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: liberalnews; news
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To: Nuc 1.1

One can, with virtual certainty, use an EEG or fMRI and detect sociopaths, their brains simply don’t respond to stimuli the way a non-sociopath’s does.

How many government employees would pass the test?


21 posted on 01/27/2019 7:37:56 AM PST by null and void (Build the wall, or don't get paid at all.)
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To: null and void

The term Yellow Journalism was first used in the 1880s. It’s not new.

Joseph Campbell describes yellow press newspapers as having daily multi-column front-page headlines covering a variety of topics, such as sports and scandal, using bold layouts (with large illustrations and perhaps color), heavy reliance on unnamed sources, and unabashed self-promotion. The term was extensively used to describe certain major New York City newspapers around 1900 as they battled for circulation.[4]

Frank Luther Mott identifies yellow journalism based on five characteristics:[5]

scare headlines in huge print, often of minor news

lavish use of pictures, or imaginary drawings

use of faked interviews, misleading headlines, pseudoscience, and a parade of false learning from so-called experts

emphasis on full-color Sunday supplements, usually with comic strips

dramatic sympathy with the “underdog” against the system.


22 posted on 01/27/2019 7:38:02 AM PST by seowulf
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To: canuck_conservative

They never reported “the truth”, they reported what got your attention which made them money!

Look at the lies the antifederalist press said about Washington! He “wanted to be king”, how ridiculous!

Jump to the Civil War, it’s like the Northern press & the Southern press got together to see who could lie the most in quantity & quality.

The goal has always been to sell newspaper, pamphlets, magazines that is gain an audience. Get you to read, listen or watch! What’s telling the truth have to do with any of that?

It’s always been a form of entertainment!

Comparing to or expecting the truth is like comparing to or expecting prostitution to be love!

People forget that at their own peril!


23 posted on 01/27/2019 7:53:16 AM PST by Reily
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To: Tomato lover
Same here. We are long time Believers and have done extensive Biblical Research since we were married, 44 years ago. We do not attend a church, we have weekly Bible studies with a few family members and a friend.

Not very many really want to know the truth of His Word or want to put in the time to be taught it and revealed by God. God will not prove anything to anybody without huge personal commitment to know His Truth. It is hard to stand and be taken seriously in this world. We see what is coming, through Jesus Christs and the Apostle Pauls records, He warned us, "The world will hate you, just like it hated me."

24 posted on 01/27/2019 8:12:45 AM PST by thirst4truth (America, What difference does it make?)
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To: SaxxonWoods

Everyone in media and Democrat leaders knows these stories aren’t true. They also know that people will be influenced to believe Trump is a criminal if he is simply accused enough times, even if each individual instance is a lie.
///////////////////////
Right.
Next phase (and it’s probably happened to some extent in the past) is to deliberately sow photoshopped images and video, digitally altered soundbites and use other frame job tactics. Even more than a phony dossier they set up.

Instead of Forrest Gump going everywhere with famous people or Fred Astaire dancing with a Hoover vacuum, have Trump looking furtive and shown with Russian lobbyists and gangsters or a Cohen tape digitally making Trump say “Geez, if the American people hear I did this I’m through. Bury this stuff for me.”

They had comedy albums in the 60s and 70s of soundbites and then real announcers making them into gags. And everyone knows how meme images aren’t real.

Is this the next sinister phase, with CNN and NYT taking two weeks to admit “Oh, yeah. We knew it was all bogus. Too bad.”
The first two weeks they will line up “experts” to lie that the voiceprints show it was Trump. Then be disproven later.


25 posted on 01/27/2019 8:22:35 AM PST by frank ballenger (End vote fraud,noncitizenos & illegals voting & leftist media news censorship or we're finished.)
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To: DaveA37

When I was a kid, they used to say, “If you send in 2 SKIPPY Peanut butter labels you would get....” (whatever it was).
Perhaps that is how the “News” media got their press credentials.
////////////////////////////
Funny.
Except the media even sent counterfeit Skippy labels. So used to faking it they couldn’t stop themselves.

By the way, my Captain Midnight decoder was genuinely procured by genuine honest means when I was a kid.

TV show Motto: Justice Through strength and courage.


26 posted on 01/27/2019 8:30:40 AM PST by frank ballenger (End vote fraud,noncitizenos & illegals voting & leftist media news censorship or we're finished.)
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To: DaveA37

Chuckles. Probably too high a standard for journalists.


27 posted on 01/27/2019 8:54:37 AM PST by Nuc 1.1 (Nuc 1 Liberals arenw't Patriots. Remember 1789!)
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To: null and void

Not many I suspect.


28 posted on 01/27/2019 8:55:18 AM PST by Nuc 1.1 (Nuc 1 Liberals arenw't Patriots. Remember 1789!)
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To: Nuc 1.1

Not necessarily a bad thing, non-malignant ones can make dispassionate decisions and are reasonably good leaders. Ones who have had abusive childhoods, and learned abuse as a life pattern, not so much...


29 posted on 01/27/2019 9:05:52 AM PST by null and void (Build the wall, or don't get paid at all.)
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To: Kaslin

Has any reporter ask the Jerkoff from buzz feed to produce the “evidence” he promised to produce in 24 business hours


30 posted on 01/27/2019 11:09:59 AM PST by dearolddad
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To: canuck_conservative

Freedom of the Press is for all citizens, just like the 2nd.

It is nor just for some elite class called journalists.

Letters to the Editor, such as by Benjamin Franklin as a pseudonymous teenager, are just as much protected as anything else.

So are blogs, despite what some... persons... on this forum assert.


31 posted on 01/27/2019 1:44:48 PM PST by YogicCowboy ("I am not entirely on anyone's side, because no one is entirely on mine." - J. R. R. Tolkien)
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To: YogicCowboy

nor = not.


32 posted on 01/27/2019 1:45:21 PM PST by YogicCowboy ("I am not entirely on anyone's side, because no one is entirely on mine." - J. R. R. Tolkien)
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To: Kaslin
“Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party” lived for over 60 years as the most damning statement/inquiry ever made in our history.

"Are you now or have you ever been a supporter of Donald J. Trump?"

33 posted on 01/27/2019 3:50:42 PM PST by Mr. Jeeves ([CTRL]-[GALT]-[DELETE])
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To: Mr. Jeeves

“Since you left the closet, have you feared for your life yet”


34 posted on 01/27/2019 3:54:58 PM PST by bert ( (KE. N.P. N.C. +12) Honduras must be invaded to protect America from invasion)
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