Friday, April 17, 2020
Headlines for April 17, 2020
Worst, Most Misleading & Funniest Headlines for April 17, 2020
*Big Business Pledged Gentler Capitalism. It’s Not Happening in a Pandemic.
Or ever. “Last August, the chief executives of 181 of America’s largest corporations signed a document pledging their commitment to run their companies for the benefit of workers and communities, and not just for shareholders.”
*Coronavirus didn't bring the economy down — 40 years of greed and corporate malfeasance did
Yup. “there is no evidence that coronavirus will spontaneously create a more inclusive form of capitalism”
*‘ABOLISH SILICON VALLEY’
“Abolish Silicon Valley: How to Liberate Technology from Capitalism”. Author Wendy Liu doesn’t think the world economy is set up in a way that serves most people. "The problem is the fact that tech is ultimately interrelated to capital and right now capital is in a very concentrated and not representative group of people. I ask the question, can we find a way of developing tech that is actually serving the public, social need without it being in the same system that has produced so much of the waste and inequality that we see."
*Putin’s Long War Against American Science
Subhead: A decade of health disinformation promoted by President Vladimir Putin of Russia has sown wide confusion, hurt major institutions and encouraged the spread of deadly illnesses.
Note: on Wednesday, Barack Obama touted this article: “Democracy depends on an informed citizenry and social cohesion. Here’s a look at how misinformation can spread through social media, and why it can hurt our ability to respond to crises.”
Bizarre personalization: "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has played a principal role in the spread of false information" "Mr. Putin has spread misinformation on issues of personal health for more than a decade."
Not a single concrete example of Kremlin-inspired disinformation in this screed, but all the familiar go-to cliches: Putin's years in the KGB, RT, Gerasimov "doctrine," Internet Research Agency
"The State Department recently accused Russia of using thousands of social media accounts to spread coronavirus misinformation — including a conspiracy theory that the United States engineered the deadly pandemic." The subhead claims this alleged Russian (sorry, "Putin"!) campaign has "encouraged the spread of deadly diseases". Regardless of whether this conspiracy theory is true or false, how would questioning the origin of coronavirus encourage the spread of Covid-19? That's on Trump.
Basically every thing that the right-wing (led now by Trump) in this country is responsible for, the NYT ascribes to "Putin", thereby absolving Trump and his "co-thinkers" (I'm using the word "thinker" loosely).
*New poll: Nearly half of frequent Fox viewers say COVID-19 death toll is inflated
*Nearly a third of Americans still believe this coronavirus conspiracy theory
Almost 30 percent of Americans who responded to a new Pew poll said they think the virus was manmade and originated in a lab. And guess what? It wasn't "Putin" who convinced them of this, it was anti-China US media and politicians spreading this nonsense.
*Trump says he has ‘total authority’ to reopen states. It's more complicated.
https://t.co/9SFUhCOEjS?amp=1 [WaPo video]
No, no it isn't more complicated. He has no such authority, and nothing in this video presents any claim (other than from Trump) that he does. Trump two days ago: ““I will be speaking to all 50 Governors and I will then be authorizing each individual Governor of each individual state to implement a reopening [plan].” Very little reporting of this ridiculous statement; Governors don’t need “authorization” from Trump to do anything, and he has no power to give it to them.
*Coronavirus keeps Joe Biden a bystander, even as Bernie Sanders endorses him
It's not coronavirus keeping Biden a bystander, it's Joe Biden, and his campaign team who knows the less Biden says, the better. "To be sure, there are certain advantages for Biden of a front-porch campaign. And the more this election is a pure referendum on Trump’s leadership, the better that could be for Biden." In other words, Democrats want the election to be between Trump and "not Trump". The less said by or about "not Trump", the better.
*In unprecedented move, Treasury orders Trump’s name printed on stimulus checks
Treasury Dept? No, it was Trump.
“Trump had privately suggested to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who oversees the IRS, that he allow the president to formally sign the checks.”
*Attorney General Bill Barr refuses to release 9/11 documents to families of the victims
Compare that plain vanilla one to this one, the headline of the week:
*US Refuses Release of 9/11 Documents, Claims Reason for Secrecy is Secret
“In a last-minute court filing this week, the US government moved to block the release of a trove of documents about the September 11, 2001, attacks to families of the victims. However, senior intelligence officials said they were unable to explain the reasons for the secrecy, as doing so would compromise US national security.”
