The Ultimate News Story!

 

The story of the Century just broke this past week. No, not the formation of Hurricane Sally. Not the continued wildfires in California. Not the return of the NFL or the fact that every single player has now become Colin Kaepernick - who still doesn't have a job for some strange reason.

No, the real news story was that one of the biggest news outlets has NOT been covering the news. In fact, pretty much reporting the exact opposite of the news.

CNN's Brian Stelter reported on September 11 how Fox News reported the bombshell story that Bob Woodward gave the world: That Donald Trump openly acknowledged in an interview that the Covid-19 virus was indeed deadly, and far worse than any flu, and yet flatly said otherwise shortly afterward.

Now, this is by no means the first time Trump was caught lying. We have Trump on video nearly every day for four, solid years lying his ass off, often times reversing what he was saying in mid-sentence. But this time, it has the weight of a global pandemic behind it. This time, it has the weight of Trump deliberately throwing everyone under the bus. And this time, it's reported on by Bob Woodward, the man who arguably brought down Richard Nixon. With the horrid milestone of 200,000 Covid-19 deaths bearing down on us, likely by the end of this week, just about everyone knows someone who has died of it, whether a friend, a family member, or a friend's family member.

Trump said he "didn't want people to panic." And by "people," he means, of course, the stock market.

And on Fox News? If it was reported on at all, it was utterly ignored, or viciously dismissed. They instead praised Trump for the peace agreement between Israel and the UAE, as if Trump had anything to do with that other than appointing his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to act as host and make sure everybody had coffee. Hannity claimed to have live footage of Joe Biden "downplaying" the virus. In that footage, Biden did assure people it was not a time to panic. Hannity then said, "Will the media, the mob, spend the next 24 hours freaking out about those comments?" Hannity asked. "I wouldn’t hold my breath."

No, you wouldn't, Sean, because you haven't been able to hold in your breath in for forty years!

But according to Hannity's own clip, Biden called it a "serious public health challenge." And Donald Trump did not even bother to say that much. How does that help him?

The biggest bullshitter prize goes to Tucker Carlson, who attacked Lindsey Graham for setting up the interview, implying that Lindsey apparently had some sort of vendetta against Trump. Never mind that, regardless of who initiated the interview, Trump still agreed to it. Regardless of who Trump interviewed with, Trump lied all on his own. And Trump went on lying to the American people long after Woodward had left.

Contrary to Tucker's conspiracy theory, Lindsey Graham had actually been kissing up to Trump for years, proving that if Trump decides he doesn't like you, it doesn't matter how much you kiss up to him afterwards, you're OUT!

Careful, Tucker. There but for the grace of Trump goest thou.

When The Atlantic ran its landmark story about how Trump called military veterans "losers" and "suckers," it rang true, because we had already heard Trump say disparaging things about John McCain, about the gold-star Khan family, and about Alexander Vindmann. And Fox News made the mistake of assigning a reporter with integrity to cover whether or not the story was true. This reporter, Jennifer Griffen, confirmed parts of the Atlantic story. But True to form, Fox went out of its way afterward to deny that Jennifer said exactly what she did on its own airwaves. Trump called for her to be fired. How dare this person tell the truth on Fox News!

And this is THE story! That an entire swath of the "news" media is dedicated, completely and thoroughly, to disinformation and bullshit. It's the reason Trump gets ANY votes. It's the reason Trump seems so in tune with his base. It's not that he's smart, or able to discern what his base wants. It's that he is part of the base! Fox News' base! And OAN's base! And Hannity's and Limbaugh's! It was no accident that Limbaugh got the Medal of Freedom. Trump was MADE by these people! Trump is the symptom, not the disease! It's not a state-run media, it's a media-run state!

I mean, holy shit! 45% of the American people are being constantly lied to?! How is that not an all-hands-on-deck, nuclear-war-level emergency's emergency!

The story is not treated that way, because we've gotten used to it. One might be tempted to say that the frog has boiled to death. But the truth of the matter is, the frog is dead, the water has evaporated away, what's left of the frog is now a charred cinder, the beaker has melted, and the Bunsen-burner fire has spread throughout the entire lab and is threatening to burn down the whole building!

A typical blue-collar worker can start his day by listening to WISN's Lindsey McKenna during the morning commute, listen to Rush Limbaugh in the afternoon at work, listen to Mark Belling in the late afternoon commute home, have dinner watching his Sinclair-owned local channel, and then close out his evening with Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity on Fox News. If he's religious, he may even watch a little bit of TBN, CBN, or some local religious network like WVCY, which confirms all his positive feelings about Trump, thus giving him not only a secular but a religious reason to think that Trump is All-Holy, and that only the "liberal media" want to attack him. And then THIS poor, misinformed sap will actually dare to think of himself as "informed!"

This is bigger than gerrymandering.

This is bigger than climate change.

This is bigger than universal healthcare.

This is bigger than wildfires or a hurricane.

This is bigger than riots.

This is bigger than the national debt.

THIS is the reason why people actually think that Q-Anon is a valid viewpoint! Given the size and intent of the evil media machine, there is absolutely no shit its viewers and listeners won't eat!

This is the evil machine which must be stopped! And so this is the ultimate news story. The lies ARE the news! Because not only is the news lying, it has institutionalized lies in a more radical way than we've ever seen before!

This means WAR! Truth above ALL, damn it!

Hey! So-called "liberal" media! Go report this!

Eric

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