It wasn’t just left-media who joined in the Buzzfeed and Covington misreporting
Right-media’s panicked virtue signaling is even more infuriating
I believe the Buzzfeed Cohen/Trump story and the Covington story have a connection, even though their subject matters differ tremendously.
The common meta-subject-matter of both, the lessons to learn from both, go like this:
(1) There appears to be no limit to the degree to which the media will lie in order to hurt the right.
(2) It can start with a fringe-type media source (usually reporting on something manufactured and/or distorted by a leftist activist unidentified as such in the report). Then the supposedly more reliable media, the MSM, will quickly pick up and run with it, with what you might call reckless disregard for the truth. This does not seem to be carelessness or accidental at all.
(3) If an exposure of the falsehood occurs and the truth finally comes out through some other conduit, there will be minimal or no apology or retraction from the original source or from the MSM. They will either double down or issue a fake and/or inadequate “apology.” This apology contains some minor element they got wrong while leaving the thrust of the story and their errors intact.
(4) In the minds of most MSM readers and listeners, the story will therefore stand mostly as originally reported. Most readers probably won’t even catch any corrections that are issued, and the ones who do will either reject them or consider them of minimal import.
(5) Then, without breaking stride, the MSM will go on to the next episode of the same game . . . because it works for them.
I noticed this game about two years post-9/11—a process I’ve described in my “a mind is a difficult thing to change” series—and this was one of the main reasons for my political change.
The tactic is even more blatantly obvious now. But many people who self-describe as being on the right seem to remain blind to it. That’s one of the themes of this recent post of Ace of Spade’s, in which he quotes Dave Reaboi on Twitter as writing the following (the “you” here is the supposedly conservative press):
People are furious that those of you who bought into it and couldn’t resist making knee-jerk Virtue Signaling condemnations have not yet learned about the nature of the enemy we’re fighting:
Activists are trained to set up these scenarios, the media runs with stories that are too good to check because they reinforce their biases. They do this on purpose. You just have to read Lefty activist literature. It’s all there, for decades. *Not knowing is your failure.*
That is the heart of the matter. How can intelligent people have been taken in by this? It’s not just that they might live and work in the Beltway, or are interested in virtue-signaling, although those things are often part of the phenomenon.
At least if their apologies sounded sincere and complete I might give them the benefit of the doubt, even now. We all make mistakes. But people who are inclined to think themselves more insightful than the rest of us, acting this way over and over and over, with so little remorse and seemingly no learning at all? No.
That is why so much of the right’s ire in response to the Covington story has been directed at pundits supposedly on the right who fell for the lie. It’s something like an error in baseball, or an own-goal in soccer. Don’t those things make fans much angrier than when the other team scores?
We know what game the left plays. Why don’t all those who profess to be on the right know it, too?
[Neo is a writer with degrees in law and family therapy, who blogs at the new neo.]
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Comments
It is fascinating how people who are not especially bright can scheme so effectively.
It is the frantic effort by the insecure to quickly claim the banner of the righteous.
Left: Look at these fascists!! All Conservatives are like this!
Moderates: Eww! Icky fascists! I’m not like that! I’m pure!
Conservatives: Hey, that looks fishy. Are you sure–
Moderate: Fascist! How dare you question this innocent minority with a grudge!
The immediate tip-off in a printed article is something like “sources close to the matter say.”
Diversity is a clear and progressive condition.
That said, beware overlapping and converging interests, foreign and domestic, that are in conflict with American interest, human rights, and civil rights.
it’s virtue signaling…
and a major portion of “conservative” media isn’t even remotely conservative.
all the Never Trump scum, for one.
“[A] major portion of “conservative” media isn’t even remotely conservative.
This. The establishment Republicans and their media cohorts are part of the same DC monolith that holds us, the little people, in contempt. They ALL assume themselves to be our betters and believe that they know best how we should live.
I normally subscribe to: never ascribe to malice that easily explained by stupidity, but, I also now follow with “if it is really stupid stupid on the surface, then assume malice until proven other wise.” The more obvious it is, the less likely that it is true. I disagree about the moderates. I think more and more of them are standing to gleen that they are being lied to, every single time, and they are starting to become more ‘conservative” in their rush to judgement.
The left isn’t stupid, they are just really really evil in their intent and goals. They know exactly what they hope to achieve with their actions, but, there is a bit of stupidity when they always fail to consider the unintended consequences of their plans, especiall those which are out of the bounds of their “intended” unintended consequences.
The worst offenders here from those who should have putatively been on the side of the boys: the local bishop/RCC diocese and the boys’ own school. They threw the boys to the wolves right from the outset, watched them get eaten alive, then joined in the blood-letting.
Did you notice the latest fallen Catholic with a smirk ?
Yes, I mean the Speaker of the House.
When a flock of chickens sees a spot of blood on one of their members, they all attack it and peck it to death. Nobody knows why.
Perhaps each one does it in hope that the farmer will recognize that she is not like all those other chickens, and perhaps he might even invite her to a seat at the table for Sunday dinner.
People have to understand the environment which currently exists in this country. There are four distinct subgroups here. The first is the bovine group. This group is only concerned with being taken care of by the Establishment. And, they have learned that they get the most support if they can portray themselves ad being a minority, all of which [except Jews] are assumed to oppressed by the majority of our society. The second group are the anarchists. The goals, of the leadership of this group, are to bring down the current Establishment so that they can supplant it with their own and become the new Establishment. The third subgroup is composed of those who want to be part of the Establishment, or are part of the Establishment, and their job has always to appear to be opposed to the goals of the Establishment, but always seem to allow the Establishment’s goals to be realized. This group is comprised by a large percentage, if not a large majority of the self described Conservative spokespeople in this country. The final group is those who want to be left alone and allowed to succeed on their own, raise their children without government interference and, basically, be left alone. Almost none of these people are of prominence in our society. They are you and I.
So, when a narrative erupts, whether true or not, which is supported by the Establishment, The first and third group are going to support it. If that narrative undermines the stability of society, this gains the support of the second group. So, all of the public voices sing the same song. This includes the third group, the so-called Conservative leadership, who is still dependent upon the establishment for their wealth, power and position. Their natural inclination is to jump on the minority oppression band wagon, along with all of their friends. Then they stand around, drinking Dom, and tell everyone at the party that they are nothing like those shameful bigots who smiled, smiled, at a native American beating a drum for no apparent reason. They are this society’s version of the Roman head-Eunuch.
They need to be named.
I’ll start with National Review Online, a shameless bunch of retarded and degenerate “writers”* masquerading as conservatives. Pushed here at LI by the neverTrumper.
They put out a hit piece on the HS students then retracted it when it became clear they, NRO, were liars.
*writers in the loosest sense that monkeys typing on a keyboard are writers. Some exceptions – Hanson and McCarthy.