I'm defending your right to be informed without misdirection and spin, I'm defending journalism.
Trump behaves badly is not an excuse for people who we think better of to do the same. If everyone behaves badly, if nobody at all can be trusted, what then?
Not putting out a story which is very evidently a mash-up of truth, half truth and lies and which has been (clumsily) fed to them for very obvious political reasons is GOOD journalism. At least until the full story has been untangled and all aspects fully verified (which can take months)
I can't think of a single journalist I know that would see it any differently and they would not thank you for 'defending' them!
I recently saw an interview with AOC on CNN when she was asked how she felt about Biden's views on fracking (he's flipped back to pro). AOC's response was that whilst she disagrees with Biden she is looking forward to lobbying him and making her case along with other campaigners, something that is not possible with Trump.
Sorry, what story is evidently a mash-up of truth, half truth and lies?
I'm defending your right to be informed without misdirection and spin, I'm defending journalism.
Trump behaves badly is not an excuse for people who we think better of to do the same. If everyone behaves badly, if nobody at all can be trusted, what then?
You genuinely think that everything that has been put out by the Trump camp on this Hunter Biden smear story is true, and that they took the time to verify it all before going public and presenting it as 'facts'?
Ok...please someone else take over, I'm done for a while.
I think this the absolute key point - and it's an important one for the UK too.
There are lots of problems with Trump but one of the biggest is the way that he has become a cult and he is to be supported whatever he says or does. We saw that when he was impeached. The comprehensive Mueller report found prima facie evidence that he'd obstructed justice but, with one exception, Congress rallied behind him. Contrast that with Nixon who knew the jig was up when his party told him to go.
We see it with policy too. Suddenly all these fiscal conservatives are happy with a tripling of the budget deficit with no-one breaking ranks.
Debate is healthy. There's a big gap between AOC and Biden but they're pushing for the same goal.
The UK is going the way of Trump. There's little debate in the Conservative party about the way forward - everyone is a Brexiteer now. And there are no public calls for Johnson to go, despite some evident mishandling of both Covid and Brexit (the fact that he admitted that he didn't understand the full implications of the Withdrawal Agreement should have terminated his career immediately; that was appalling neglect). That's not a healthy situation for a governing party and one that, I think, will lead to trouble in the future.
Nothing has been "put out by the Trump camp", they have commented on it, although actually not a great deal. .
Something is not newsworthy because you think it is. Perhaps the news organisations have had a good look and think that actually, it is not relevant or creditable - and is an attempt to muddy waters to make their man somehow look less bad. Your defence does not then look such a noble cause.
Nothing has been "put out by the Trump camp",
That's completely untrue. The source of the allegations in the New York Post was Rudy Giuliani. There's been no attempt to hide that
Nothing has been "put out by the Trump camp", they have commented on it, although actually not a great deal. But the source of the story is documents now in the public domain and witnesses on the record. You may not like the messenger (even though Trump isn't actually the messenger here), but that doesn't say anything about the message.
It's not a "smear story" either. It's just documentation, evidence. It has no motive in and of itself. What it documents is (or should be) highly newsworthy. Under any other circumstances it would be. But this is an election cycle where the media have a strong leaning towards (and against) a particular candidate, and that has led them to not cover a story of serious import. Technically, by omission, this is an attempt to influence the election by the media. They have picked their candidate and are reporting (or not reporting) in accordance with that preference.
That is actually the scandal here. It's a bigger scandal than the story itself. Politicians, presidents, candidates, they come and go. But the media remains. They have published stories of questionable origin in recent times against one candidate, and they are refusing to publish documented and verified stories about another candidate in the run up to the election now. Their dereliction of their duty as journalists and their transparent desire to influence the election is the real story here IMO.
Rather blinkered way of looking at it. The whole story comes from a laptop that mysteriously fell into the hands of Bannon and Giuliani. Are you saying they're not .Trump' people?
Well surprise surprise. Trumps biggest TV mouthpiece Fox News, who yesterday said the explosive documents package, that would bury the Biden family, had vanished - and was since allegedly found and then sent again to Tucker Carlson. Are now not going to report on it anymore after all?
So assuming UPS are telling the truth and these explosive revelations were found and forwarded, and probably today are in Carlson's and Fox news hands.... they instead now say, they dont want to go after Bidens Son anymore?
Ahhhh hw charitable, what lovely people to have such explosive factual info to hand from the son of a political opponent, but then to have a epiphany of concience and decide not to publish it after all?
https://www.thedailybeast.com/tucker-carlson-suddenly-says-its-time-to-leave-hunter-biden-alone
Whats your answer [MENTION=18559]dingodan[/MENTION] ? Carlson found God last night? surely no chance that the whole thing was a totally contrived, pack of BS misinformation set up purely designed to tr and damage a rival with no factual basis, or was actually based on the debunked NBC obtained bullshit?
Did you listen to the piece? or read the article?
They have recieved a lot of stuff about Hunter Biden, some of it about his personal life. He has been publicly shamed and humiliated with some of the stuff that has come out. They have said they will continue to report on information relevant to Joe Biden. But they will not drag Hunter Biden through the mud on issues relating to his personal life.
Why would you criticize them taking that position? Sounds about right to me tbh.
The source material isn't a person, it's documentary evidence .
Source material is not the same as 'source'. The source is the person.
And if you think that any journalist worth their salt doesn't consider the integrity and potential motive of a source for any potetially sensitive story, let alone one of this nature and timing, then you know nothing about how (real) journalism works. Which I suspect is indeed the case.
Yes I read it fully, did you before you started apologising again?
Yesterday, Carlson said (when they went missing) the documents he believed were real, he said they were "explosive" "damning" to the Biden family and had huge significance to the presidential election.
He also said they were not from Bobulinski.
Now said documents are found, probably in his hands..... And in the article I linked above Carlson is directly quoted.
......adding that it was deeply concerning that such a thing could happen to a “trove of materials that are directly relevant to the presidential campaign that’s six days away.”
Now NBC has clearly proven a dodgy dossier is a fake, Carlson reins back quickly with Hunter has been through enough already and we want to stop now??
Are you really so stupid?
No chance at all the "explosive, damning" documents that could sink then Biden family yesterday, which he said he had verification that he thought we real- which are “trove of materials that are directly relevant to the presidential campaign that’s six days away.”
may in fact be from the dodgy dossier? or do you really believe they are not going to be aired because Hunters feelings have been hurt enough now?
You're deluded - they would stop at NOTHING if they had anything and they genuinely thought or could prove it to be real.