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Monday, February 17, 2020


 

Headlines for Feb. 14, 2020




Click here to listen to this week's segment on Loud & Clear Radio.  
Headlines with an * are the ones we managed to fit in in our allotted time slot.

Worst, Most Misleading & Funniest Headlines for Feb. 14, 2020

*Playing on Kansas City Radio: Russian Propaganda
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/us/russian-propaganda-radio.html
“Russians” are perfectly fine people. “Propaganda” is, when properly used, a perfectly fine word simply meaning speech or writing meant to persuade — an op-ed, for example. But “Russian propaganda” is meant to mean something entirely different — disinformation. But that’s a lie. What they really object to is that we dare “sow doubt about Western governments and institutions.” And we say things like the US should get out of Iraq. “We’ve always put on voices and people that wouldn’t be able to get on anyplace else,” said Mr. Schartel, who has owned the station for 26 years.

This all reminds me very much of the Hillary Clinton emails from 2016. When they were released, things like her well-paid speeches to Wall St. executives, the Clinton camp was all over TV telling people not to read them, they were fake. But that was a lie. The reason they didn’t want us to read them wasn’t because they were fake, but because they were real.

By the way, much of the article makes a big deal about how these broadcasts interfere in some parts of Kansas City with a low-power Black jazz station. But this station has been in operation for 26 years, broadcasting right-wing talk radio, so the problem with interference has nothing to do with Sputnik.

*McClatchy, Major Local News Publisher, Files for Bankruptcy
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/business/media/mcclatchy-bankruptcy.html
Just a reminder that in the lead-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, McClatchy and in particular its reporters Jonathan Landay and Warren Stroebel, were the lone source in mainstream media of doubts about the “evidence” for WMD in Iraq. Today the same reporting by independent journalists like Aaron Maté is called Russian propaganda.

*Pete Buttigieg Stakes Out a Unique Space in the Democratic Field
Subhead: Revolutionary profile in a conventional package makes his standing tough to predict
https://www.wsj.com/articles/pete-buttigieg-stakes-out-a-unique-space-in-the-democratic-field-11581351970
The “revolutionary” claim seems to be that he’s gay & his entire political experience is that of a small-town mayor. His election would be no more revolutionary than was that of Margaret Thatcher, the first female PM of the UK. Groundbreaking, yes. Revolutionary? Definitely not.

*Not Even Socialists Believe in Socialism Anymore
https://www.wsj.com/articles/not-even-socialists-believe-in-socialism-anymore-11581458840
Is this a leftist arguing that Sanders isn't a "real" socialist? Not at all. No, it's an article about how Venezuela "is quietly surrendering control [of its oil industry] to foreign companies in a desperate bid to keep the economy afloat." A word missing from the article? "Sanctions". 

*Irish Voters Cast Off Relic of Entrenched 2-Party System
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/12/world/europe/ireland-election-sinn-fein.html
Imagine the NYT referring to the “Relic of Entrenched 2-Party System” in the US. You’ll have to imagine it, because it’ll never happen. The lede in that article is so relevant to voter turnout in the US: “In a century-old political system controlled by two seemingly indistinguishable center-right parties in Ireland, Jamie Clarke did what seemed sensible to him: He never voted in a general election.”

*How Months of Miscalculation Led the U.S. and Iran to the Brink of War
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/us/politics/iran-trump-administration.html
More like “years of US aggression”.

Centrist Democrats Want to Stop Sanders. They’re Not Sure Who Can.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/12/us/politics/democrats-new-hampshire-sanders.html
Quoting Ted Rall: “The NYT would NEVER run a headline like “Leftist Democrats Want to Stop Hillary. They’re Not Sure Who Can.””
AP: Some Dems fear fallout from Sanders atop the ticket

*Why Bill Barr’s DOJ replaced Catholic Charities with Hookers for Jesus
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/11/why-bill-barrs-doj-replaced-catholic-charities-with-hookers-jesus/‬
‪Yes, this is a real headline, yes, it’s real, and no, as Dave Barry would say, I (or actually Dana Milbank) am not making this up.‬ Why? Well, it turns out the head of the Catholic Charities affiliate had been active with Democrats and Hookers for Jesus is run by a Christian conservative.



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