Pompeo needs to testify under oath because lying to the media isn’t a crime

By spocko, on January 27th, 2020%

The story of Mike Pompeo’s interview with Mary Louise Kelly from NPR and his subsequent response calling her a liar came out while I was reading Catch and Kill and watching Bombshell.

Those stories showed the multiple ways the powerful hide their lies and crimes. The good news is that both those stories give us a model to use to stop them.

I’ve watched several Pompeo interviews and they show a man who isn’t skilled in talking to the media so he resorts to insults and intimidation. I’ve seen this attitude many times before, almost always from men. They think “media training” means figuring out how to train the media to do what they want. They know it’s not a crime to lie to the public or the press. As former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said, ‘I have no obligation to be honest to the media.’

Pompeo and his staff start off using bribes of access to control who is doing the interview and what the topics will be. When that doesn’t work they use name calling and threats. Remember his interview in October with the Tennessee reporter? Pompeo made his dissatisfaction clear. I can guarantee that following that . . . → Read More: Pompeo needs to testify under oath because lying to the media isn’t a crime

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TV producers: Tell viewers Gen. Petraeus works for @KKR_Co which has holdings in major defense contractors

By spocko, on January 8th, 2020%

Below is how Face the Nation identified Petraeus on January 5th. They didn’t identify the company he works for, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, nor his title: David H. Petraeus, Member, Chairman of the KKR Global Institute

Last week I predicted that the cable news shows would book “retired” generals to talk about how to respond to Trump’s assassination of Iran’s General Soleimani but would fail to inform viewers if they worked for firms that would profit from war. Here was my piece:

To all MSM producers: Tell us who pays the war experts you are booking now

It wasn’t a hard prediction to make. I linked to a Lee Fang article from the Nation in 2014 Who’s Paying the Pro-War Pundits? Today Lee Fang, (now at the Intercept), identified some of the same retired generals who went on TV and the failure of the media to disclose their ties to defense contractors.

TV Pundits Praising Suleimani Assassination Neglect To Disclose Ties To Arms Industry

It’s not a surprise when Fox News does this, but we should expect more from CBS’s Face The Nation, NBC’s “Meet the Press, NPR’s Morning Editon with Steve Inskeep, and Public Radio International’s . . . → Read More: TV producers: Tell viewers Gen. Petraeus works for @KKR_Co which has holdings in major defense contractors

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The fire down below. #AustraliaIsBurning #AustraliaFires

By spocko, on January 5th, 2020%

Photos from the fire down below. Links below on how to help.

 

“My last day of the decade felt like the apocalypse.” Matt Abbott

Photo by Matthew Abbott, @mattabbottphoto

“My last day of the decade felt like the apocalypse. Been covering the Australian bushfires for the last 6 weeks, but haven’t seen anything like yesterdays fire that decimated the town of Conjola, NSW. #bushfirecrisis #AustralianBushfires #NSWisburning work for @nytimes” Photo by Matthew Abbott, Instagram link

That’s an amazing photo that instantly puts you in a place. When I was learning to be a photographer the teacher at the Nikon School of Photography said, “No guts, no glory. If your photos are weak, you are probably too far away.” For me that meant stepping into the middle of a 4th of July parade to take a photo of Shriners walking toward me. I wonder how long he had to wait in that fire zone to get that kangaroo in the shot? These photographers have some real guts.

Now that you have an idea of where the fire is, here’s a graphic for how big it is. I found this on Reddit where they like to compare the size of things . . . → Read More: The fire down below. #AustraliaIsBurning #AustraliaFires

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