Category Archives: Media Criticism

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Layers And Layers Of Fact Checkers

21 Comments

The Petraeus story continues to make no sense (just because the FBI is doing a potential criminal investigation in which Petraeus was not a target is no reason for the Attorney General to fail to inform the president that his DCI had some potential security issues as soon as he knew) but I love this:

The sources said agents followed department guidelines that generally bar sharing information about developing criminal investigations. The FBI is also aware of its history under former director Herbert Hoover of playing politics and digging into the lives of public figures.

Is there no depth of the evil of that skinflint Republican president in the minds of the leftist media? Now it turns out that he usurped J. Edgar’s role.

And yes, I took a screenshot. It’ll be interesting to see if they memory hole it, or provide an erratum.

[Update a while later]

OK, according to a commenter, they memory holed it. And indeed they did (just reclick the link above).

But as I said, I took a screenshot.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

Born Yesterday

2 Comments

Really?

So the administration would have us believe that only after the election was the president told by the FBI that an investigation with possible national-security implications — involving no less than the director of the Central Intelligence Agency — has been going on since the summer. We’re also to believe that the director’s resignation after the election and before congressional hearings on Benghazi is purely coincidental. Not only that, but when the most powerful man in the world learned of the attack on our consulate in Benghazi, he immediately ordered that everything be done to secure all personnel at the site — but apparently, everyone ignored him. So he did what any commander in chief would do under such circumstances — he went to bed.

Yes, they really do think we’re that stupid.

Well, unfortunately, it appears that a little over half of us are.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

The Makers And The Takers

19 Comments

…and the forgotten men and women:

Now, before you say something in your comments you’ll regret — or should regret — this is not to endorse the freedom-killing and economy-destroying solutions of the left, which only create a nation of rulers and dependents. Barack Obama has been a disaster for the poor and the working class and, I believe, will continue to be so. But to pat a worker on the head with your cigar hand and say, basically, “Don’t worry, little man, an unfettered market lifts everyone,” is not going to win you his confidence or his vote. Reagan never did that. (Read the excellent WaPo piece by AEI’s Henry Olsen at the link.) Reagan always stood up and spoke up for the little guy. He identified with him and explained why his policies would help him. Many of today’s Republicans have lost that knack and given the game away in the process. That’s why the polls showed people shared Romney’s values but thought Obama cared about “people like me.”

It’s largely conservative policies that help the working guy and girl, but you have to let them know that and make sure they understand that government cares about them and will not abandon them if they fall off the bottom rung of the ladder. When one candidate is saying, “Tax the rich,” and the other is calling half the people moochers, both are wrong… but only one will win an election.

Yes, the September/October surprise worked. And Romney was no Reagan. But the good news is that a more ept candidate can make the case to the working class for free markets. But the Republicans have to start caring more about it themselves, and stop coddling big business.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Related thoughts from Paul Hsieh:

…in retrospect, the vote totals showed that Romney’s support may have been deeper than McCain’s in 2008, but not significantly broader.

So in that respect, those GOP rallies indicated something akin to the small-but-intense fan base for Apple computers in the mid-1990s. Of course, one of Steve Jobs’ key accomplishments in the 2000s was to turn that into an LARGE-and-intense fan base for Apple products.

I won’t rehash the “bigthink” arguments about the best next direction for the GOP. I just want to propose that *if* they can improve their message and inspire genuine enthusiasm for a positive pro-freedom agenda, then rallying (and growing) the base won’t be a problem. Although I have a mixed opinion of Ronald Reagan policies, he was an acknowledged master at communicating an inspiring, upbeat message to the voters. If the GOP finds a good message and a good messenger, then the turnout problem will take care of itself.

Yup.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Who Knew What When?

9 Comments

Eric Holder knew about Petraeus months ago?

By late summer, after the monitoring of Ms. Broadwell’s emails uncovered the link to Mr. Petraeus, prosecutors and agents alerted senior officials at FBI and the Justice Department, including Mr. Holder, U.S. officials say. The investigators never monitored Mr. Petraeus’s email accounts, the officials say.

So let’s get this straight. The Attorney General knew months ago that the head of the CIA was embroiled in an affair with national security implications, and he didn’t tell the president? Because that’s the official story from the administration — that the president (and Clapper) only found out last week. I dunno, I think if I had an AG who kept me in the dark for months on something like that, I’d ask for his resignation, along with Petraeus’s, last week. But that’s just me. And of course, were I president, he’d have already given me ample reasons to show him the door. On the other hand, if I’d been president, I’d have never appointed the corrupt racist hack in the first place.

Education, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Social Commentary

Buzzfeed

…and their historically illiterate insinuation.

Demographics might well cost the Republican party the future, and conservatives must address this if we wish to stay relevant. But we should also ensure that the historically illiterate don’t cost us our past as well. In the comments section on BuzzFeed, one woman rants about the “Republicans” being responsible for “Jim Crow,” and a man says that the GOP should be banned because it’s always on the wrong side of history. The temptation is to look at this and ignore it as meaningless pop-culture silliness. This would be a mistake. Conservatives and Republicans have for too long ceded pop culture’s influence to the Left. If we continue to allow progressives to construct a linear historical narrative that casts conservatives and the Republican party as the villains in every piece, we can kiss goodbye to ever winning a national election again.

This is why the country is on the verge of ruin — the takeover of the educational system at all levels by the Left for the past forty years. While the coming collapse of the academic bubble (and the unsustainable pension of the teachers’ unions) may help purge the system of a lot of these liars, as Jedediah Bila notes, we have to take back the popular culture as well.