TiLTNews Network: Earth Watch - Freedom is defined by the ability of citizens to live without government interference, not by safety. It is easy to clamor for government security when terrible things happen; but liberty is given true meaning when we support it without exception, and we will be safer for it ~ Dr. Ron Paul
Saturday, November 11, 2017
Fake News; The Neutron Bomb Explodes
Fake News; The Neutron Bomb Explodes
- Published on Published on November 9, 2017
Richard Edelman
President and CEO, Edelman
We are just out of the field on a flash poll in the U.S. taken last week, with 1,000 members of the general population and an oversample of 113 Silicon Valley-based tech employees on the impact of fake news on trust in mainstream media. The sad conclusion that has been drawn by a majority of Americans is that fake news is created by the media with a motive, destruction of political opponents. The logical end point is establishment of echo chambers, in which one reads only that which one agrees with. It is the end of the town square that allowed for the discussion of issues based on mutually agreed facts.
Here are the key findings of the study:
- Fake news is decreasing trust in traditional news organizations. Thirty six percent said that their trust has decreased “a lot,” 26 percent said trust has decreased “a little.” The biggest decline is among Republicans, with 49 percent saying that their trust has decreased “a lot” and 25 percent saying trust has decreased “a little,” for a total of 74 percent. Contrast this to Democrats with a decline of 50 percent, with 22 percent.
- The most popular definition of fake news is “sloppy or biased reporting by news organizations” (47 percent), followed by an “insult being over-used to discredit news stories that people do not like” (39 percent). This has a political tinge…Republicans are much more inclined to believe that there is biased reporting (57 percent) than Democrats (38 percent), while Democrats are inclined to believe that fake news is a term used to discredit certain stories (47 percent) than Republicans (32 percent).
- Fake News is changing consumption behaviors. Over half (51 percent) said they are now more careful about where they get news. They are also fact-checking and verifying sources more than ever before. Nearly a quarter of respondents said it has made them doubt the truth of almost every news story they see.
- Despite protestations to the contrary, a near majority believe that social platforms are media companies. This pertains especially to Twitter, which is seen by nearly a 5 to 1 margin as more media than technology company, and to a lesser degree, Facebook. And more than half of our respondents blame social platforms for spreading fake news.
- The most frequently proposed remedies include large fines against companies that publish fake news, requirements to label the source of content (earned and paid), requiring companies to screen for fake news and educating the public to distinguish falsehood from truth.
In Plato’s “Republic,” there is the famous Allegory of the Cave, in which Socrates speaks with Plato’s older brother, Glaucon. “Let me show you in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened. Behold, human beings living in an underground cave…they have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move and can see only before them…they see only their own shadows or the shadows of one another…to them, the truth would literally be nothing but the shadows of the images…What will naturally follow if the prisoner is released? Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the objects which are now shown to him?“
We have locked ourselves into a cave of our own making. We have become tribal and defensive. The mainstream media is categorized as elitist and politicized, unable to carry out its vital role of truth-telling as the fourth estate in global governance. We opt instead for opinion based on personal experience, using the social platforms as equivalent or superior forms of communication. Given this environment, business needs to take control of its own story, with every company becoming a media company. The employees become the most important audience and then most credible spokespeople, empowered to speak on behalf of the company to friends, family and customers. In so doing, we can reverse this inexorable slide toward judgment based on passion instead of fact.
Friday, November 10, 2017
Thursday, November 9, 2017
Rep. Matt Gaetz: ‘Unaccountable Special Prosecutor with Clear Conflicts of Interest’ Puts America at Risk of ‘Coup d’etat’
by JOHN HAYWARD9 Nov 20172,854
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) joined SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Thursday’s Breitbart News Daily to talk about tax reform, which he called a “work in progress.” He also discussed his call for the removal of Robert Mueller as special counsel in the investigation of Russian influence on the 2016 election.
“It absolutely must become law because we have to deliver on the Trump agenda,” Gaetz said of tax reform. “We’re already seeing consumer confidence and business confidence and investor confidence rise in anticipation of the great work that the president’s doing. Regulatory reform and tax reform are cornerstones of that work.“
“I think we’re further ahead on the corporate side, cutting the corporate tax rate to 20 percent, repatriating assets that are currently overseas. That’s really the reform that’s going to lead to the wage growth that we never saw in the Obama economy,” he predicted.
“I think we’ve got some work still to do on the individual side, making sure we really drive these reforms to regular folks who just want to play by the rules and move their families ahead, without all the cutouts and giveaways that too many special interests have gotten in Washington over the last several generations,” said Gaetz.
Gaetz agreed with Marlow that tax reform and the attendant economic growth could be a “signature thing for the Republicans to run on in 2018.”
“All of the elements you describe – low unemployment, high growth, people’s pension plans and retirement plans doing better in the stock market – that’s all just a consequence of the first piece of regulatory reform,” he told Marlow. “Imagine how much we can supercharge the economy and really deliver on the improvement of the quality of life that the president promised when we actually pass. So I’m confident the House of Representatives will pass a tax cut that the president will support, but gosh, when I look over there at the United States Senate, I don’t know if those guys and gals could pass a Mother’s Day resolution these days.”
Marlow suggested the Republican establishment was trying to “run out the clock” on Trump’s presidency, delaying the passage of legislation that would improve the president’s standing with the public in the hope that an impeachment drama might remove him from office or that he will lose his re-election bid in 2020.
“We’re at a real risk, Andrew, of a coup d’etat in this country if we allow an unaccountable special prosecutor with clear conflicts of interest to spend more than a year undermining the duly elected President of the United States. It’s ludicrous,” Gaetz replied.
“That’s one of the reasons I have called for Mueller to be removed as the special counsel,” he continued. “As early as 2009, we knew that Russia was using bribery and extortion to undermine our uranium assets. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that just about that time, you’ve got hundreds of thousands of dollars going to Bill Clinton, and you’ve got Hillary Clinton at the State Department not saying peep as we put our national security at risk.”
“If Bob Mueller was really doing his job over there at the FBI, we would have had this information before the Congress and the American people, and we would not have given Russia this foothold in our uranium profile here in the United States,” he charged. “I think Mueller has got to go.”
“We’ve also called on a special counsel to investigate the Uranium One deal and the Fusion GPS dossier,” Gaetz added. “It’s important for the American people to know the current folks over at the Justice Department cannot possibly investigate Fusion GPS and Uranium One, these two massive scandals of Russians working with the Democrats, because too many people over there at the FBI may be involved – may be, either through their acts or through their omissions, culpable for some of this conduct. That’s why we need a special prosecutor to investigate the real crimes from the real criminals. It all is going to lead back to the Clinton Foundation.”
“We need more members of Congress to speak out about the erosion of rule of law that will happen if we allow Mueller to continue. That’s what I think will bring sufficient pressure to bear to alter the path we’re currently on that’s unfairly, and without any evidence, undermining the president. And we’re a year into his term! I mean, this is ridiculous. Are we going to spend the entire first term of Donald Trump with these innuendoes and suspicions? It’s absolutely counterproductive to the quality of life of the American people,” he exclaimed.
“The context that I think is appropriate here is the law firm Mueller worked at; 97 percent of the donations they made in the 2016 presidential campaign went to Hillary Clinton. That’s interesting context. Then Mueller goes and hires lawyers who actually worked for Hillary Clinton fighting against Freedom of Information Act requests. Why would someone do that? That’s just an obvious conflict. Why would James Comey go and leak information through his Columbia law professor buddy to get Bob Mueller appointed, his longtime friend, as the special prosecutor? That makes absolutely no sense,” said Gaetz.
“To me, the obvious conflict of interest – and I’m a lawyer; I serve on the Judiciary Committee – is that Bob Mueller was there at the FBI while we were getting information about Russia’s attempts to influence our uranium assets, to acquire our uranium assets, and either through malfeasance or through negligence, Mueller did nothing as a consequence,” he declared.
“We’re going to find out that the motion that sealed the testimony of our informant in Russia was actually signed on a signature block that had Rod Rosenstein’s name on the signature block. If Rosenstein as a U.S. attorney was involved in depriving the Congress and the American people of the information that would have exposed this scandal, how possibly can these people be the ones that are now looking into the president while the president is pointing out the real scandals from the real criminals?” he asked.
Marlow found it absurd that multiple long-term investigations are running on the Trump 2016 campaign, with little to show for the effort, while no investigations are conducted into Uranium One or Fusion GPS.
“It truly is, and it’s why we have to get a special counsel appointed to look into those matters. We cannot have the current folks over there at the Department of Justice do that work. They’re all inherently conflicted,” Gaetz agreed.
“We have got to put this silly Russia narrative with President Trump behind us as a country,” he urged. “This is an improving quality of life for the American people. It’s not leading to a more robust economy or stronger rule of law. At the same time, Russia really has influence over 20 percent of our uranium assets? We’ve got to do more than find out whose fault it was. We’ve got to actually make sure that that doesn’t undermine our national security.”
“I mean, for goodness sakes, when we look at what’s going on in the world with North Korea, with Iran, there’s never been a time where it’s been more important to make sure that we’re not making nuclear proliferation easier. That’s why we’ve got to get this special counsel appointed,” he advised.
Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Eastern.
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