The days-long Democratic debacle in Iowa has forced the Associated Press to throw in the towel Thursday and declare no official winner in what was likely the state&#8217;s last first-in-the-nation caucuses. In some of his trademark presidential trolling, a newly &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-trump-takes-aim-at-romney-pelosi-at-national-prayer-breakfast">ACQUITTED</a>&#8221; Trump offered some trolling advice for the Democrats about who to blame.
&#8220;The Associated Press is unable to declare a winner of Iowa’s Democratic caucuses because of irregularities in this year&#8217;s process and the tight margin between Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders,&#8221; AP announced on social media Thursday.
&#8220;Following the Iowa Democratic Party’s release of new results late Thursday night, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg leads Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by two state delegate equivalents out of 2,152 counted. That is a margin of 0.09 percentage points,&#8221; <a href="https://apnews.com/4f9044fe46f551d397d48dd8ca3d58db?utm_medium=AP_Politics&amp;utm_campaign=SocialFlow&amp;utm_source=Twitter">AP</a> explained in its &#8220;no winner&#8221;-announcing report. &#8220;However, there is evidence the party has not accurately tabulated some of its results, including those released late Thursday that the party reported as complete. The AP’s tabulation of the party’s results are at 99% of precincts reporting, with data missing from one of 1,765 precincts, among other issues.&#8221;
And that&#8217;s not all, AP explains. The Democratic National Committee has now ordered Iowa to recanvass the results, requiring them to recount and recalculate all the votes. Whether state Democratic officials choose to do so remains to be seen.
As a result, AP Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Sally Buzbee issued a statement Thursday announcing the it is simply &#8220;not possible&#8221; to determine a Democratic winner in Iowa. &#8220;The Associated Press calls a race when there is a clear indication of a winner. Because of a tight margin between former Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Bernie Sanders and the irregularities in this year’s caucus process, it is not possible to determine a winner at this point,&#8221; said Buzbee.
In response, Trump trollingly tweeted, &#8220;I think they should blame RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA again!&#8221;
&#8220;If they can’t count votes properly, how are they going to run U.S. HealthCare?&#8221; he added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I think they should blame RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA again! If they can’t count votes properly, how are they going to run U.S. HealthCare? <a href="https://t.co/JsNB8jvKoo">https://t.co/JsNB8jvKoo</a>
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1225766149473947651?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
As AP notes, DNC Chairman Tom Perez issued a blistering statement on Thursday ordering the Iowa Democratic Party to clean up their mess.
&#8220;Enough is enough,&#8221; a frustrated Perez tweeted. &#8220;In light of the problems that have emerged in the implementation of the delegate selection plan and in order to assure public confidence in the results, I am calling on the Iowa Democratic Party to immediately begin a recanvass.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Enough is enough. In light of the problems that have emerged in the implementation of the delegate selection plan and in order to assure public confidence in the results, I am calling on the Iowa Democratic Party to immediately begin a recanvass.
&mdash; Tom Perez (@TomPerez) <a href="https://twitter.com/TomPerez/status/1225468833458245632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Perez&#8217;s demand followed a party-embarrassing New York Times analysis finding that &#8220;more than 100 precincts reported results that were internally inconsistent, that were missing data or that were not possible under the complex rules of the Iowa caucuses.&#8221;
&#8220;In some cases, vote tallies do not add up,&#8221; the Times reported on Thursday. &#8220;In others, precincts are shown allotting the wrong number of delegates to certain candidates. And in at least a few cases, the Iowa Democratic Party’s reported results do not match those reported by the precincts.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-poll-buttigieg-rockets-to-near-tie-with-sanders-in-new-hampshire-biden-plummets">NEW POLL: Buttigieg Rockets To Near-Tie With Sanders In New Hampshire; Biden Plummets</a>

US-POLITICS-TRUMP-SOTU

AP Declares No Official Democrat Winner In Iowa; Trump Has Advice On Who To Blame

Associated Press

Democratic Party

Donald Trump

Iowa

The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2019/10/20/us/ap-us-trump-jr.html">Associated Press</a> stealthily edited an article on Sunday that defended Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, from attacks leveled against them from President Donald Trump&#8217;s son, Donald Trump Jr.
&#8220;You know what the difference between the Bidens and us are?&#8221; Trump Jr. said last week on Fox News. &#8220;We were international business people before politics and we gave up doing all new deals going forward. We didn&#8217;t become, magically, international business people because of our political position. We put that all aside. For years –&#8221;
The Associated Press highlighted other criticisms that Trump Jr. has launched against Biden and his son before writing:
<blockquote>Trump Jr. has pushed back, suggesting that his criticism of Hunter Biden was not for having a famous father, but rather for trading access to his father’s office to enrich himself. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by either Biden.</blockquote>
A short time later, the Associated Press edited the report, without adding an update or correction on the article, writing [emphasis added]:
<blockquote>Trump Jr. has pushed back, suggesting that his criticism of Hunter Biden was not for having a famous father, but rather for trading access to his father’s office to enrich himself. Neither Biden has been charged with wrongdoing.</blockquote>
Biden&#8217;s presidential campaign has been on a downward trend over the past couple of months as questions about his fitness for office have increased and as Trump has rapidly escalated attacks on him over allegations of corruption surrounding his involvement with a Ukrainian gas company that employed his son, Hunter.
In 2018, &#8220;with video cameras rolling, Biden described how he threatened Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in March 2016 that the Obama administration would pull $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees, sending the former Soviet republic toward insolvency, if it didn’t immediately fire Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin,&#8221; The Hill <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/436816-joe-bidens-2020-ukrainian-nightmare-a-closed-probe-is-revived">reported</a>. &#8220;The prosecutor he got fired was leading a wide-ranging corruption probe into the natural gas firm Burisma Holdings that employed Biden’s younger son, Hunter, as a board member.&#8221;
“I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.’ I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours,&#8221; Biden recalled telling Poroshenko. &#8220;I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’”
“Well, son of a bitch, he got fired,&#8221; Biden continued.
Hunter Biden admitted during an interview last week that he has benefited from his father being vice president.
&#8220;If your last name wasn&#8217;t Biden, do you think you would&#8217;ve been asked to be on the board of Burisma?&#8221; Hunter Biden was asked during an interview with ABC News.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t know. I don&#8217;t know. Probably not,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think that there&#8217;s a lot of things that would have happened in my life if my last name wasn&#8217;t Biden.&#8221;
&#8220;It is impossible for me to be on any boards without saying that I’m the son of the vice president of the United States — lots of things would not happen in my life if my name wasn’t Biden,&#8221; Hunter Biden added.

Associated Press Secretly Edits Article Defending Bidens From Trump Jr. Criticism

Hunter Biden

Joe Biden

Ukraine

The Democratic debate in Houston on Thursday contained a whole lotta falsehoods, so many that the Associated Press decided to do a &#8220;fact check&#8221; on the numerous claims spouted by White House wannabes.
It wasn&#8217;t pretty.
There were claims that America has among the worst child poverty rates in the world, that the Obama-Biden administration didn&#8217;t &#8220;lock people up in cages&#8221; at the border, and that &#8220;every study&#8221; shows Medicare-for-all is &#8220;the most cost effective approach.&#8221;
Yeah, not so much, said the AP.
But the most egregious claim was that President Trump &#8220;inspired&#8221; — nay, &#8220;directed&#8221; — the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas. The shooting at a Walmart happened on August 3, killing 22 people and wounding 24. The FBI is investigating the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and a possible hate crime.
Robert &#8220;Beto&#8221; O&#8217;Rourke, who is barely a blip on most polls, sought to tie Trump directly to the shooting.
“Everything that I’ve learned about resilience, I’ve learned from my hometown of El Paso, Texas, in the face of this act of terror, that was directed at our community, in large part by the president of the United States. It killed 22 people, and injured many more, we were not defeated by that. Nor were we defined by that,&#8221; the former Texas congressman said.
Julian Castro, another candidate who is far behind the field, went even further.
“Look, a few weeks ago a shooter drove 10 hours inspired by this president to kill people who look like me and people who look like my family,&#8221; the former U.S. housing secretary said.
&#8220;THE FACTS: Nobody has claimed that Trump &#8216;directed&#8217; the shooting, as O’Rourke suggested,&#8221; <a href="https://www.apnews.com/93c4326ad44843978ec761a9fbb10f60">the AP wrote</a>.
&#8220;It is difficult to know for sure what led the gunman to open fire inside a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, killing 22 people. The suspect posted a manifesto online before the shooting that echoed Trump’s comments on immigration,&#8221; said the fact check. &#8220;The screed spoke of what the suspect called a &#8216;Hispanic invasion of Texas,&#8217; railed against immigrants and warned of an imminent attack. Nearly all of the victims had Latino last names.&#8221;
But then the AP wrote that the shooter &#8220;said his own views &#8216;predate Trump and his campaign for president.&#8217;”
That&#8217;s about as big a &#8220;false&#8221; as you&#8217;ll get from the left-leaning wire service.
On other whoppers told at the debate, the AP shot down Sen. Bernie Sanders&#8217; claim that “We have the highest child poverty rate of almost any country on Earth.” The AP said the U.S. &#8220;fared better than Russia, Chile, Spain, India, Turkey, Israel, Costa Rica, Brazil, South Africa and China,&#8221; then gave Sanders a primer on what poverty is, saying it is a &#8220;relative measure in which someone who is poor in one nation might look rather prosperous in another.&#8221;
Sanders made another iffy claim: “Every study done shows that ‘Medicare for All’ is the most cost-effective approach to providing health care to every man, woman and child in this country.”
&#8220;THE FACTS: Not exactly,&#8221; said the AP.
<blockquote>The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said in a report earlier this year that total spending under a single-payer system, such as the one proposed by Sanders, “might be higher or lower than under the current system depending on the key features of the new system.”</blockquote>
Those pesky details.
And on Joe Biden&#8217;s claim that the Obama-Biden administration &#8220;didn’t lock people up in cages, we didn’t separate families,&#8221; the AP was brutal.
&#8220;THE FACTS: His comment about cages is wrong,&#8221; said the wire service, adding that at the southern border, &#8220;the same enclosures were employed when Biden was vice president.&#8221;

gettyimages-1149455832.jpg

AP Grudgingly Admits That Despite Dem Claims, Trump Didn’t ‘Inspire’ El Paso Mass Shooting

Bernie Sanders

Beto O'Rourke

El Paso Shooting

Julian Castro

Medicare

In a unanimous ruling that the <a href="https://apnews.com/7eef738596e9458eacb9f9015d7fd7fe">Associated Press</a> reports many people in the courtroom found &#8220;surprising,&#8221; a nine-member jury concluded on Monday that Katy Perry&#8217;s 2013 Grammy-winning song &#8220;Dark Horse&#8221; — which reached number one on Billboard&#8217;s Hot 100 in 2014 — improperly copied a Christian rap song produced four years earlier.
Marcus Gray and two co-authors, Emanuel Lambert and Chike Ojukwu, first filed a complaint against Perry in 2014 alleging that &#8220;Dark Horse&#8221; borrowed substantially from the Christian rap song &#8220;Joyful Noise,&#8221; which Gray released in 2009 under his stage name &#8220;Flame.&#8221; In a Los Angeles courtroom Monday, the jury ruled unanimously in Gray&#8217;s favor.
The jury had signaled during its two days of deliberations that it might only find the defendants partly liable for copyright infringement, asking questions focused on &#8220;the notes and beats of the song, not its lyrics or recording,&#8221; AP notes. The jury&#8217;s questions also pointed to Perry personally avoiding any liability.
&#8220;But in a decision that left many in the courtroom surprised, jurors found all six songwriters and all four corporations that released and distributed the songs were liable, including Perry and Sarah Hudson, who wrote only the song’s words, and Juicy J, who only wrote the rap he provided for the song,&#8221; AP reports. Producers Dr. Luke, Max Martin and Cirkut were also found liable for their role in producing the beat of the song.
The jury agreed with the prosecution that almost half of Perry&#8217;s hit song featured both a beat and instrumental lines that were &#8220;substantially similar&#8221; to Gray&#8217;s rap song. Perry&#8217;s attorneys countered that the elements in question are too rudimentary to single out as copyright violations, and stressed that doing so will put other artists at risk.
In her closing arguments noted by AP, the singer&#8217;s lawyer stated, &#8220;They’re trying to own basic building blocks of music, the alphabet of music that should be available to everyone.&#8221; The defense called a musical expert to testify to the simplicity of the musical patterns in the song.
But in the end, the arguments presented on behalf of Gray and his co-plaintiffs won the day. The jury determined that the beat and instrumental lines were complex and original enough to merit copyright protections.
&#8220;The case now goes to a penalty phase, where the jury will decide how much Perry and other defendants owe for copyright infringement,&#8221; AP reports.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/23766/katy-perry-indefinitely-banned-china-heres-why-amanda-prestigiacomo">Katy Perry Indefinitely Banned From China. Here&#8217;s Why.</a>

Jury: Katy Perry Copied Christian Song

Katy Perry

New York Democrats kicked off 2019 by passing the most radical abortion bill in U.S. history, which erased the state&#8217;s limitation on abortion of 24 weeks, allowing abortion up until birth to protect the mother&#8217;s health, including mental health, and entirely removed abortion from the penal code. Other blue states are now following suit with their own aggresively &#8220;pro-choice&#8221; bills, citing the chance of the repeal of Roe v. Wade as the impetus.
On Wednesday, Rhode Island joined New York as another blue state that allows abortion up until birth if deemed &#8220;necessary for the health or life of the mother,&#8221; <a href="https://www.apnews.com/8158e5100cf94542b98215a3a58bc32b">The Associated Press</a> reports.
&#8220;The new law says the state will not restrict the right to an abortion prior to fetal viability or afterward if an abortion is necessary for the health or life of the mother,&#8221; AP reports. &#8220;It repeals older state abortion laws deemed unconstitutional by the courts. The bill was approved Wednesday in the Senate 21 to 17 after two hours of debate, then in the House 45 to 29 after a half hour debate.&#8221;
&#8220;Fundamentally this bill is about health care,&#8221; Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo said Wednesday when she signed the abortion bill into law. &#8220;It&#8217;s about protecting and providing access to health care for all the women of Rhode<a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rhode-island"> </a>Island.&#8221;
Despite the significant impact of the bill&#8217;s legalization of abortion until birth if the &#8220;health&#8221; of the mother is deemed at risk, Rhode Island Democrats have played down the law, insisting it simply &#8220;preserves the status quo&#8221; by &#8220;codifying Roe v. Wade.&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s a difficult issue and there are good and principled people on both sides of the issue,&#8221; said Raimondo, the <a href="https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20190619/governor-signs-abortion-rights-bill-into-law-following-house-senate-approval">Providence Journal</a> reports. &#8220;But in light of all the uncertainty in Washington, and frankly, around the country in many other states, there is great deal of anxiety that &#8230; a woman&#8217;s right to access reproductive health care is in danger. &#8230; The bill I am about to sign codifies Roe v. Wade. It preserves the status quo &#8230; that has existed in this state for [close to] 50 years.&#8221;
Democratic Sen. Erin Lynch Prata stressed that the bill is intended to &#8220;protect&#8221; the citizens of the state and echoed the governor&#8217;s talking point on Roe v. Wade. &#8220;This bill is this chamber and this legislature performing our responsibility to the citizens of the state of Rhode Island. It is our responsibility to protect our citizens. We are not putting our citizens in the hands of a changing Supreme Court,&#8221; said Lynch, in comments reported by AP.
Democrat Bridget Valverde defended the stripping away of protections for unborn children by stressing that birth can be a &#8220;traumatic experience&#8221; in addition to one of &#8220;beauty.&#8221; In the end, she maintained, abortion is really just about &#8220;health care&#8221; and being able to make choices about one&#8217;s own health.
Not all Democrats were on board with the abortion bill, however, including Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Crowley, Harold Metts, Frank Lombardo and Dominick Ruggerio, President of the Senate. Lombardo pleaded with his fellow Democrats to vote against the bill because &#8220;we are all children of God and I tell you, we will all be accountable to God for the position of influence that he has given to all of us,&#8221; the Providence Journal notes.
Republicans, meanwhile, attempted to amend the bill multiple times, but Democrats blocked their proposals, including a provision that triggered the bill only if Roe v. Wade is actually repealed and one requiring the administering of anesthesia to unborn children before ending their lives.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48545/nyc-make-history-abortion-funding-james-barrett">NYC To Be &#8216;First City In The Nation To Directly Fund Abortion&#8217;</a>

Rhode Island Passes ‘Abortion Until Birth’ Bill; Senator: ‘We Will All Be Accountable To God’

Abortion

On Thursday, the <a href="https://www.cjr.org/watchdog/doj-ap-phone-records.php">Columbia Journalism Review</a> reported on the results of a Freedom of Information Act request for documents related to the Obama Justice Department&#8217;s attempts to crack down on leaks to reporters which reveal that the Obama administration&#8217;s actions against the press &#8220;were broader than previously known.&#8221;
The report &#8212; which begins by warning against the threat the Trump administration poses to the freedom of the press &#8212; presents an alarming picture of the previous administration&#8217;s efforts to surveil the press and track down sources of leaks (h/t <a href="https://hotair.com/archives/2019/05/23/cjr-obama-admin-surveillance-reporters-far-extensive-previously-known/">Ed Morrissey</a>).
CJR&#8217;s report, authored by Ramya Krishnan and Trevor Timm, is based on a highly redacted 59-page <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6023116-DOJ-Report-on-AP-Subpoenas-Controversy.html">report</a> &#8203;by the Justice Department&#8217;s Office of Professional Responsibility completed Dec. 9, 2014 and obtained via FOIA request by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and the Freedom of the Press Foundation (where Krishnan and Timm work, respectively).
&#8220;In 2013, the Justice Department launched a brazen attack on press freedom, issuing sweeping subpoenas for the phone records of the Associated Press and several of its reporters and editors as part of a leak investigation,&#8221; the authors report. While those subpoenas have long been understood as &#8220;a massive intrusion into newsgathering operations,&#8221; they note, the recently unearthed 2014 report reveals that the subpoenas targeting AP &#8220;told only part of the story.&#8221;
The Office of Professional Responsibility&#8217;s report on the Obama Justice Department&#8217;s subpoenas of AP phone records reveals that &#8220;the DOJ&#8217;s actions against the AP were broader than previously known, and that the DOJ considered subpoenaing the phone records of other news organizations, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, and ABC News,&#8221; the authors explain. The report also reveals &#8220;how narrowly the DOJ interprets the Media Guidelines, the agency&#8217;s internal rules for obtaining reporters&#8217; data.&#8221;
The Obama DOJ&#8217;s targeting of the AP came in response to May 2012 reports containing classified information about the CIA&#8217;s thwarting of a Yemen-based bomb plot. In early 2013, the Deputy Attorney General approved requests by the DOJ to subpoena AP telephone records in an attempt to uncover reporters&#8217; sources, prompting AP to complain that the DOJ had violated the Media Guidelines about how narrowly subpoenas for reporters&#8217; phone records should be drawn.
Though the DOJ defended its broad subpoenas, the Office of Professional Responsibility&#8217;s report reveals that ethics lawyers were troubled enough by the sequence of events to look into it and found that the department&#8217;s handling of the investigation was more expansive than previously known. CJR reports:
<blockquote>
The report, which was submitted to then&#8211;Attorney General Eric Holder in 2013, reveals that the leak probe was broader than previously understood. It reveals, for example, that, while the Justice Department obtained telephone toll records for 21 telephone numbers, the agency in fact issued &#8220;30 subpoenas to obtain telephone toll records for 30 unique telephone numbers.&#8221; The report reveals that those 30 subpoenas were intended to target seven reporters and editors, and covered a period of six weeks spanning April 1, 2012 to May 10, 2012.
The report also shows that, at least at one stage of their investigation, Justice Department attorneys considered subpoenaing the records of The Washington Post, The New York Times, and ABC News. What&#8217;s more, the report strongly suggests that the attorneys went so far as to obtain &#8220;telephone numbers and other contact information&#8221; for reporters and editors at those organizations who had worked on articles about the Yemen bomb plot. The report records, however, that the attorneys ultimately decided against issuing additional subpoenas.
</blockquote>
The Office of Professional Responsibility ultimately attempts to downplay the DOJ&#8217;s actions in ways Krishnan and Timm describe as &#8220;disturbing.&#8221; &#8220;Disturbingly, the report does not come close to explaining why the subpoenas targeted the trunk lines of major AP offices&#8212;lines which could potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the AP&#8217;s newsgathering activities,&#8221; they stress. Instead, the report simply concludes by arguing that even though the DOJ targeted phone records that turned out to be unrelated to their investigation, &#8220;at the time when the subpoenas were sought, investigators had a factual basis for believing that those telephone numbers did relate to [AP] personnel.&#8221;
<a href="http://www.cjr.org/watchdog/doj-ap-phone-records.php">Read the Columbia Journalism Review&#8217;s full report here</a>.

Report: Obama Administration’s Actions Against Press Worse Than Previously Known

Barack Obama

Department of Justice

Eric Holder

Freedom of the Press

Obama Administration

The left-leaning media realized, over the weekend, that it made an error in not being more skeptical of &#8220;Empire&#8221; star Jussie Smollett&#8217;s claim that he was attacked by two anti-gay, racist, Trump-supporting Chicago-dwellers back in late January. But instead of taking responsibility, journalists with high profile outlets like CNN and the Associated Press flipped the script, blaming conservatives for &#8220;pouncing&#8221; and &#8220;seizing&#8221; on Smollett&#8217;s misdeeds.
CNN&#8217;s Brian Stetler was the first to suggest that mainstream media approached the Smollett case with skepticism, telling viewers on Monday that it was &#8220;entertainment media&#8221; and other online blogs that ran with Smollett&#8217;s story of being attacked, not reputable sources like, say, CNN.
&#8220;I think it was mostly in the celebrity press and among activists and among Twitter people. I think it was a really careful reporting by news organizations. But it all gets lumped in together at the end of the day,&#8221; Stetler said.
Stetler was echoing <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/tv/white-vox-writer-sneers-at-black-cnn-panelist-youre-an-expert-on-hate-crimes/">a similar point made on his &#8220;Reliable Sources&#8221; program Sunday</a>, captured by Mediaite, where he and guests claimed that no mainstream media sources fell for Smollett&#8217;s evidence-free, unqualified claims. Stetler seemed reticent to acknowledge that few media sources pursued the obvious flaws in Smollett&#8217;s original story, and that local Chicago media was left to pick up the case, pursuing Smollett&#8217;s claims and the Chicago Police Department&#8217;s response for weeks until the story blew wide open last Saturday.
&#8220;On CNN&#8217;s Reliable Sources, Vox&#8217;s Liz Plank emphatically made this point, saying she couldn&#8217;t find &#8216;a real reputable media outlet reporting&#8217; that the attack was motivated by MAGA or included a statement about &#8216;MAGA country,'&#8221; Mediaite discovered. &#8220;I couldn&#8217;t find one,&#8221; Plank said. &#8220;We can&#8217;t confuse celebrity tweets with the media and the press.&#8221;
But Mediaite&#8217;s Caleb Howe, who captured Plank&#8217;s quote, <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/online/did-the-media-jump-the-gun-on-the-jussie-smollett-story/">ultimately compiled a neat list</a> of mainstream media sources that adopted Smollett&#8217;s version of events, using terms like &#8220;attacked&#8221; and &#8220;beaten&#8221; without qualifying them with terms like &#8220;allegedly&#8221; or &#8220;claims.&#8221;
From Newsweek, for example:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8216;EMPIRE&#8217; STAR JUSSIE SMOLLETT VICTIM OF HOMOPHOBIC ATTACK 
By MAGA Supporters: &#8220;We&#8217;re told when he walked out, someone yelled, &#8216;Aren&#8217;t you that f***ot &#8216;Empire&#8217; n*****?'&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/k7wWrh3H86">https://t.co/k7wWrh3H86</a>
&#8212; Jason Lemon (@JasonLemon) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonLemon/status/1090288311824982016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 29, 2019</a></blockquote>
And Reuters.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
This is heartbreaking &#8212; &#8216;Empire&#8217; Star Jussie Smollett Beaten in Homophobic Attack By MAGA Supporters <a href="https://t.co/ruP5fwD5Qz">https://t.co/ruP5fwD5Qz</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/TMZ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TMZ</a>
&#8212; gina (@jeanuh_) <a href="https://twitter.com/jeanuh_/status/1090288249837404160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 29, 2019</a></blockquote>
The list, of course, includes CNN, which reported that Smollett had been &#8220;attacked,&#8221; and The Washington Post, where &#8220;Democracy Dies in Darkness.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Today, <a href="https://twitter.com/brianstelter?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@brianstelter</a>: &#8220;There was a rush to judgment&#8230; mostly in the celebrity press&#8230; activists&#8230; Twitter people. I think it was a really careful reporting by news organizations.&#8221; 
CNN, January 29: &#8220;Empire&#8221; actor victim of racist and homophobic assault&#8221;<a href="https://t.co/43cvuA5QZC">https://t.co/43cvuA5QZC</a> <a href="https://t.co/Hrar2tXWzI">pic.twitter.com/Hrar2tXWzI</a>
&#8212; Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) <a href="https://twitter.com/JerylBier/status/1097503016247267328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Right, <a href="https://twitter.com/brianstelter?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@brianstelter</a>, it&#8217;s not about the media.
Washington Post reported 3 times the attack happened without using allegedly. Great super bowl ad tho. <a href="https://t.co/tsznW28QL9">pic.twitter.com/tsznW28QL9</a>
&#8212; Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) <a href="https://twitter.com/redsteeze/status/1097176305001525248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
The Associated Press jumped on the &#8220;conservatives pounce&#8221; bandwagon Monday morning wth a story of their own, acknowledging that Smollett&#8217;s story was quickly unraveling, but noting that while the developments left some &#8220;baffled&#8221; and &#8220;outraged,&#8221; conservatives &#8220;seized&#8221; on the moment to &#8230; well &#8230; the Associated Press doesn&#8217;t make that particularly clear.
&#8220;Skeptics, including conservative pundits Dinesh D&#8217;Souza and Tomi Lahren, seized on the doubts that have arisen,&#8221; the AP reported. &#8220;&#8216;And Libs wonder why we don&#8217;t believe their BS stories,&#8217; Lahren tweeted Saturday. On Sunday, she criticized those who used social media after the attack to push &#8216;the narrative (that) Trump supporters are racist homophobes.'&#8221;
So far, though, Smollett&#8217;s case seems to be falling apart faster than conservatives can adequately &#8220;seize&#8221; the moment, leaving it difficult to blame right-leaning media for the full affair. By Monday afternoon, new reports emerged, noting Smollett&#8217;s potential motive in staging the attack, and claiming that Smollett is now refusing to speak to Chicago police.

Conservatives SEIZED? Left-Leaning Media Runs Interference For Jussie Smollett

Brian Stelter

Media

Media Bias

Washington Post

The Associated Press was once one of the most venerated news services on the planet.
Not anymore.
On Halloween, the AP ran a story with this headline (screen grab below): &#8220;President Trump&#8217;s first 3 children received birthright citizenship.&#8221;
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In the original story, the first paragraph said this: &#8220;CLAIM: Ivana Trump wasn&#8217;t a citizen until 1988. She gave birth to Don Jr. in 1977, Ivanka in 1981 and Eric in 1984. Therefore they received birthright citizenship, which Trump wants to end.&#8221;
As background, Trump has announced he plans to end the &#8220;ridiculous&#8221; policy that grants automatic citizenship rights to children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants or non-citizens. In an interview with Axios, Trump said &#8220;We&#8217;re the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States&#8230; with all of those benefits. It&#8217;s ridiculous. It&#8217;s ridiculous. And it has to end.&#8221;
Almost immediately, the claim that some of his children were granted birthright citizenship emerged on social media.
The AP piece was part of a new program the wire service is doing jointly with Facebook. &#8220;The Associated Press reviewed this story after it was surfaced to third-party fact checkers as part of an initiative with Facebook to assess the accuracy of news content.&#8221;
Yes, the fact-checkers got the facts wrong.
At some later point, the AP changed the headline. &#8220;President Trump&#8217;s first 3 children did not receive birthright citizenship,&#8221; read the new headline. And the AP added this: &#8220;CORRECTION: The headline on this story has been corrected to show that Trump&#8217;s first three children did not receive birthright citizenship.&#8221;
But even in the corrected version, the AP deems the claim is a &#8220;mixture&#8221; of fact and fiction.
<blockquote>
AP&#8217;S ASSESSMENT: Mixture. It&#8217;s true that Ivana Trump was not a citizen until 1988, but the father of her children was a U.S. citizen and there would have been no special status needed to make them citizens.
</blockquote>
Now, if you can understand how this is a &#8220;mixture&#8221; you&#8217;re much smarter than we are. It says very clearly that there was &#8220;no special status needed to make them citizens,&#8221; so how is that a mixture? The AP went on to say:
<blockquote>
According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a person can gain citizenship if &#8220;at least one parent, including an adoptive parent, is a U.S. citizen by birth or through naturalization.&#8221; If Trump were to take away birthright citizenship, the Trump children would still be citizens because their father is a U.S. citizen.
</blockquote>
The article &#8212; with the original headline &#8212; was posted on reddit.com and remains on the site. A site moderator said: &#8220;AP originally published this article with the title seen in this post. They&#8217;ve since edited the title, which now contradicts the original. The mod team is electing to leave the article up, as we always do when the poster uses the correct title at the time of submission. Please read the article for the most complete information.&#8221;
When someone clicks on the article, the headline says the opposite, that the Trump children did not receive birthright citizenship. Go figure.
The AP has lately been running fast and loose with facts. Just this week, the wire service wrote this headline: &#8220;Trump says media is &#8216;Enemy&#8217; after shooting, bomb plot.&#8221;
Here&#8217;s what Trump said:
&#8220;There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open &amp; obvious hostility &amp; report the news accurately &amp; fairly. That will do much to put out the flame&#8230;&#8221; the first tweet said. The second finished the thought: &#8220;&#8230;.of Anger and Outrage and we will then be able to bring all sides together in Peace and Harmony. Fake News Must End!&#8221;
So Trump never &#8220;accused the media of being &#8216;the true Enemy of the People.&#8221; Instead, he said, &#8220;The Fake News Media&#8221; is &#8220;the true Enemy of the People.&#8221; There&#8217;s a big, big difference. But for some reason, the AP decided to omit that and instead claim that Trump said all media are the enemy.
And once again, the &#8220;fake news&#8221; media is simply proving Trump&#8217;s point.

The Associated Press Makes Another Colossal Error — And This One’s Really Embarrassing

The headline was a grabber.
&#8220;Trump says media is &#8216;Enemy&#8217; after shooting, bomb plot,&#8221; the Associated Press reported around 9 a.m. Monday morning. The article said:
<blockquote>
President Donald Trump on Monday accused the media of being &#8220;the true Enemy of People&#8221; in the wake of a mass shooting and a mail bomb plot.
Trump tweeted: &#8220;There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news.&#8221; He added that the media &#8220;must stop the open &amp; obvious hostility &amp; report the news accurately &amp; fairly.&#8221;
</blockquote>
But something jumped out right away. Why the partial quote? Why did the AP edit Trump&#8217;s posts on Twitter? And why didn&#8217;t the news service include the tweet itself?
The answers were quite simple: Because what Trump said and what the AP wanted to say Trump said were two completely different things.
Here&#8217;s what Trump said (and we&#8217;ll run the two tweets he posted, too):
&#8220;There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open &amp; obvious hostility &amp; report the news accurately &amp; fairly. That will do much to put out the flame&#8230;&#8221; the first tweet said. The second finished the thought: &#8220;&#8230;.of Anger and Outrage and we will then be able to bring all sides together in Peace and Harmony. Fake News Must End!&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open &amp; obvious hostility &amp; report the news accurately &amp; fairly. That will do much to put out the flame&#8230;
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1056879122348195841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 29, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8230;.of Anger and Outrage and we will then be able to bring all sides together in Peace and Harmony. Fake News Must End!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1056880287974649856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 29, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
So Trump never &#8220;accused the media of being &#8216;the true Enemy of the People.&#8221; Instead, he said, &#8220;The Fake News Media&#8221; is &#8220;the true Enemy of the People.&#8221; There&#8217;s a big, big difference. But for some reason, the AP decided to omit that and instead claim that Trump said all media are the enemy.
In the piece, the Associated Press never runs the full tweets from Trump, but does, at the end of the article, seek to connect the president to a bomb mailed to the liberal news network CNN.
<blockquote>
Throughout his campaign and presidency, Trump has been an unrelenting critic of the media. Last week, the New York offices of CNN, the cable network frequently attacked by Trump and his supporters, was evacuated after receiving an explosive device and an envelope containing white powder.
While stopping short of blaming Trump&#8217;s rhetoric for inspiring the attacks, Jeff Zucker, the president of CNN Worldwide, contended there was a &#8220;total and complete lack of understanding at the White House about the seriousness of their continued attacks on the media.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Mark Twain once said, &#8220;There are only two forces that can carry light to all the corners of the globe &#8230; the sun in the heavens and the Associated Press down here.&#8221;
But those days are long gone. And to badly misquote Twain, the death of the unbiased Associated Press is not greatly exaggerated.
Late Monday evening, Trump said as much.
&#8220;CNN and others in the Fake News Business keep purposely and inaccurately reporting that I said the &#8216;Media is the Enemy of the People.&#8217; Wrong! I said that the &#8220;Fake News (Media) is the Enemy of the People,&#8221; a very big difference. When you give out false information &#8211; not good!&#8221; Trump wrote on Twitter.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
CNN and others in the Fake News Business keep purposely and inaccurately reporting that I said the &#8220;Media is the Enemy of the People.&#8221; Wrong! I said that the &#8220;Fake News (Media) is the Enemy of the People,&#8221; a very big difference. When you give out false information &#8211; not good!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1057059603605831680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 30, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Then he said:
&#8220;Check out tweets from last two days. I refer to Fake News Media when mentioning Enemy of the People &#8211; but dishonest reporters use only the word &#8216;Media.&#8217; The people of our Great Country are angry and disillusioned at receiving so much Fake News. They get it, and fully understand!&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Check out tweets from last two days. I refer to Fake News Media when mentioning Enemy of the People &#8211; but dishonest reporters use only the word &#8220;Media.&#8221; The people of our Great Country are angry and disillusioned at receiving so much Fake News. They get it, and fully understand!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1057063101189836801?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 30, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Thanks for filling out my story, Mr. President!

Associated Press Says Trump Calls All Media ‘Enemy Of The People.’ It’s A Lie, He Didn’t.

Fake News

All politics, all the time.
In an article dripping with condescension, the Associated Press decided to include a bit of politics in a story about fake Dead Sea Scrolls fooling Christians.
The Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. opened its doors in November 2017. The centerpiece of the museum was a collection of 16 Dead Sea Scroll fragments. Unfortunately for the museum, at least five of those scrolls were discovered to have been forgeries.
Make no mistake, this appears to be &#8220;<a href="https://apnews.com/b5cfe168fb004f229634ebe6f3fe57ac?utm_source=Twitter&amp;utm_medium=AP&amp;utm_campaign=SocialFlow">a massive case of archaeological fraud</a>,&#8221; the AP reports.
&#8220;The scrolls are a collection of ancient Jewish religious texts first discovered in the mid-1940s in caves on the western shore of the Dead Sea in what is now Israel,&#8221; AP explains. &#8220;The massive cache of Hebrew documents is believed to date back to the days of Jesus. With more than 9,000 documents and 50,000 fragments, the entire collection took decades to fully excavate.&#8221;
But in 2002, new scroll fragments suddenly went up for sale, and evangelical Christians have apparently paid millions of dollars for what are likely fakes.
Some of those who appear to have purchased forged scrolls are the billionaire Green family, which founded Hobby Lobby. And here&#8217;s where the AP gets really nasty. The author couldn&#8217;t just leave it at Hobby Lobby, they had to include a dig at the family over its religious opposition to Obamacare&#8217;s contraceptive mandate.
&#8220;Also eagerly buying up fragments was the Green family &#8212; evangelical Oklahoma billionaires who run the Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores and who famously sued the Obama administration on religious grounds, saying they didn&#8217;t want to pay to provide their employees access to the morning-after pill or intrauterine devices.&#8220; (Emphasis added.)
The Greens readily provided their employees with access to most of the popular forms of birth control, but did not want to pay for insurance that allowed for the morning-after pill or intrauterine devices without a copay, because the employers see those as abortion-inducing drugs. They never banned their employees from seeking these options, or threatened to fire anyone who did &#8211; they just didn&#8217;t want to pay for them.
None of this even matters in a story about the Dead Sea Scrolls. The AP goes on to mention another controversy related to the Green family, who are the primary backers of the Bible Museum. The family had previously purchased Iraqi artifacts from dealers over warnings that the artifacts may have been looted. The family returned the artifacts and paid a $3 million fine after being ordered to by the Department of Justice.
That&#8217;s relevant to the story. The Greens had another misstep when it comes to artifacts. But including the part about Obamacare just makes the story petty and shows the author&#8217;s &#8211; and the outlet&#8217;s &#8211; Left-leaning bias.
In a statement to the AP, the chief curator for the Bible Museum, Jeffrey Kloha, said the discovery of the fake Dead Sea Scrolls was &#8220;an opportunity to educate the public on the importance of verifying the authenticity of rare biblical artifacts, the elaborate testing process undertaken and our commitment to transparency.&#8221;

SERIOUSLY? AP Inserts Politics Into Article About Dead Sea Scrolls

Bible

Christianity

In what can only be truthfully described as a &#8220;shocking development,&#8221; the Associated Press has issued a fact check on former President Barack Obama&#8217;s claim that he &#8220;never threatened to shut&#8221; down media outlets or &#8220;call them enemies of the people.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.apnews.com/ffc60235c26c470c9047e0da6ff19f95/AP-FACT-CHECK:-Obama-doesn%2527t-always-tell-the-straight-story">The AP concludes</a> &#8212; shockingly &#8212; that Barack Obama &#8220;doesn&#8217;t always tell the straight story.&#8221;
The fact check specifically concerns comments Obama made while accepting an award in his home state of Illinois last week, where the former president compared his treatment of press outlets he didn&#8217;t quite care for, like Fox News, to current President Donald Trump&#8217;s feud with CNN.
&#8220;It shouldn&#8217;t be Democratic or Republican to say that we don&#8217;t threaten the freedom of the press because they say things or publish stories we don&#8217;t like,&#8221; Obama quipped. &#8220;I complained plenty about Fox News, but you never heard me threaten to shut them down or call them enemies of the people.&#8221;
Even the Associated Press, which is no right-leaning news outlet, was left scratching it&#8217;s head. Although President Donald Trump does have a very publicly contentious relationship with &#8220;biased&#8221; media outlets, the Obama administration targeted journalists and others with an ancient espionage act that allowed them to monitor and prosecute &#8220;leakers&#8221; &#8212; and they did both with gusto.
&#8220;The Obama administration used the 1917 Espionage Act with unprecedented vigor, prosecuting more people under that law for leaking sensitive information to the public than all previous administrations combined. Obama&#8217;s Justice Department dug into confidential communications between news organizations and their sources as part of that effort,&#8221; the Associated Press reports.
Included in at least one Obama-era espionage dragnet were 20 AP reporters who were investigated for receiving classified information on a foiled Al Qaeda plot.
And then there&#8217;s the matter of a Fox News reporter who ran afoul of the Obama administration.
&#8220;Obama&#8217;s Justice Department also secretly dogged Fox News journalist James Rosen, getting his phone records, tracking his arrivals and departures at the State Department through his security-badge use, obtaining a search warrant to see his personal emails and naming him as a possible criminal conspirator in the investigation of a news leak,&#8221; the AP said.
The AP even gently reminds Obama that The New York Times thought that was a little much.
The fact check goes on, taking Obama to task for his claims on presiding over economic growth (questionable) and on President Donald Trump ripping health insurance away from 4 million Americans (the CDC notes that the number of uninsured remains essentially unchanged, even though there is no longer a Federal mandate to carry health insurance).
The AP also skewers the former president for claiming middle class families experienced growth in household income (they didn&#8217;t) and that Trump&#8217;s jobless rate is the result of his economic policies (fair, but experts do credit Trump&#8217;s economic policies with continued growth in hiring).
Maybe Obama shouldn&#8217;t be so eager to get back on the campaign trail if he&#8217;s lost even his friends in the media.

AP Fact Checks Obama: He ‘Doesn’t Always Tell A Straight Story’

Fox News

How many layers removed can a source be before the entire report starts to look absurd?
The Associated Press seems to have pushed the limits in <a href="https://apnews.com/4ac772445073491aa7d3ca9e558e0144/AP:-Justice-lawyer-was-told-Russia-had-'Trump-over-a-barrel?utm_source=Twitter&amp;utm_campaign=SocialFlow&amp;utm_medium=AP">an article</a> published Friday morning. Here&#8217;s the lede:
<blockquote>
A senior Justice Department lawyer says a former British spy told him at a breakfast meeting two years ago that Russian intelligence believed it had Donald Trump &#8220;over a barrel,&#8221; according to multiple people familiar with the encounter.
</blockquote>
So, sources say a DOJ lawyer said a former British spy told him that Russian intelligence told him it had the president &#8220;over a barrel&#8221; during the 2016 elections. Got that? The AP&#8217;s tweet wasn&#8217;t any clearer, stating: &#8220;BREAKING: Sources reveal senior Justice Department lawyer&#8217;s interview with lawmakers: He said former British spy told him Russian intelligence believed it had Donald Trump &#8216;over a barrel&#8217; during the 2016 campaign.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
BREAKING: Sources reveal senior Justice Department lawyer&#8217;s interview with lawmakers: He said former British spy told him Russian intelligence believed it had Donald Trump &#8216;over a barrel&#8217; during the 2016 campaign <a href="https://t.co/xmC0Es5x1Q">https://t.co/xmC0Es5x1Q</a>&#8216;
&#8212; The Associated Press (@AP) <a href="https://twitter.com/AP/status/1035547441431568385?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 31, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
I count five-times removed from the original source, but it was pointed out to me on Twitter that it is even more removed than that. We have the &#8220;Russian intelligence,&#8221; Christopher Steele (former British spy), Bruce Ohr (Former DOJ official), DOJ lawyers, lawmakers, &#8220;sources,&#8221; and the Associated Press.
The Federalist&#8217;s Sean Davis summed it up best:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
My best friend&#8217;s sister&#8217;s boyfriend&#8217;s brother&#8217;s girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who&#8217;s going with the girl who saw a Russian intelligence agent talking about Trump at 31 Flavors last night. <a href="https://t.co/8uYLsEE0m8">https://t.co/8uYLsEE0m8</a>
&#8212; Sean Davis (@seanmdav) <a href="https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1035561030561288192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 31, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Save Ferris.
(Disclosure: I also write for the Federalist.)

Media TOTALLY Has Trump Now After AP’s Seventh-Hand Report

Russia

Hillary Clinton can finally stop her exhausting search for the reason she lost the 2016 election despite having an overwhelming political advantage over her former reality TV star opponent: The National Enquirer&#8217;s special safe where they&#8217;d lock up damaging stories on Donald J. Trump, longtime pal of the paper&#8217;s chief, David Pecker.
Just after news broke that Pecker, chairman and CEO of the Enquirer&#8217;s parent company American Media Inc., had been <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/34937/breaking-national-enquirer-ceo-david-pecker-ben-shapiro">granted immunity</a> by federal prosecutors so he could spill the beans on his buddy, the Associated Press published yet another &#8220;bombshell&#8221; in a week filled with bombshells: &#8220;<a href="https://apnews.com/143be3c52d4746af8546ca6772754407/AP:-National-Enquirer's-safe-held-damaging-Trump-stories">National Enquirer hid damaging Trump stories in a safe</a>.&#8221;
According to &#8220;people familiar with the arrangement ,&#8221; the tabloid kept any stories that could&#8217;ve potentially undermined candidate Trump &#8212; like his &#8220;hush money&#8221; pay-offs to a former Playmate and a touring porn star &#8212; locked in a special safe, along with stories involving other celebrities&#8217; &#8220;catch-and-kill deals.&#8221; AP reports:
<blockquote>
Five people familiar with the National Enquirer&#8217;s parent company, American Media Inc., who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because they signed non-disclosure agreements, said the safe was a great source of power for Pecker, the company&#8217;s CEO.
The Trump records were stored alongside similar documents pertaining to other celebrities&#8217; catch-and-kill deals, in which exclusive rights to people&#8217;s stories were bought with no intention of publishing to keep them out of the news. By keeping celebrities&#8217; embarrassing secrets, the company was able to ingratiate itself with them and ask for favors in return.
</blockquote>
One unnamed source told AP that Pecker and chief content officer Dylan Howard removed the Trump stories weeks before Trump&#8217;s inauguration, fearing they&#8217;d become a &#8220;liability&#8221; after details about the $150,000 payment to former Playmate Karen McDougal. Where the stories are now is &#8220;unclear,&#8221; AP notes.
According to one former Enquirer reporter, Jerry George, the &#8220;catch-and-kill&#8221; approach &#8220;took root&#8221; at the Enquirer under Pecker, AP notes. The tabloid would sometimes pay the hush money, he explained, in order to get something in return from the celebrity. So far, no response from American Media on AP&#8217;s claims.
The claims about the safe follow reports by The Wall Street Journal and Vanity Fair about Pecker&#8217;s <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/34937/breaking-national-enquirer-ceo-david-pecker-ben-shapiro">immunity deal</a>. Court documents for the case against Trump&#8217;s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who &#8220;flipped&#8221; on him Tuesday, say that Pecker had helped Trump handle negative stories about women by &#8220;assisting the campaign in identifying such stories so they could be purchased and their publication avoided.&#8221;
Pecker reportedly shared information with federal prosecutors about the payments Cohen says he made at Trump&#8217;s direction to McDougal and Stormy Daniels.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/34937/breaking-national-enquirer-ceo-david-pecker-ben-shapiro">SHAPIRO: National Enquirer CEO David Pecker Granted Immunity By Feds To Flip On Trump</a>

AP: National Enquirer Stored Damaging Trump Stories In ‘Catch-And-Kill’ Safe

National Enquirer

Brett Kavanaugh was announced as President Donald Trump&#8217;s nomination to the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy left by Anthony Kennedy on July 9, 2018.
On July 10, investigative reporter for the New York Times Steve Eder made a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request under Maryland&#8217;s Public Information Act.
This is what the request entailed:
<blockquote>
The New York Times requests to review certain correspondence of Ashley Kavanaugh during her tenure as town manager in Chevy Chase Section 5. Specifically, we request digital copies of any emails to or from Ms. Kavanaugh that contain any of the keywords or terms listed below.
As such, please conduct a search of the email account(s) used by Ms. Kavanaugh for the following:
&#8220;Judge&#8221;
&#8220;Brett&#8221;
redacted
redacted
&#8220;Husband&#8221;
&#8220;Supreme Court&#8221;
&#8220;SCOTUS&#8221;
&#8220;Trump&#8221;
&#8220;Obama&#8221;
&#8220;Bush&#8221;
&#8220;Clinton&#8221;
&#8220;Democrat&#8221;
&#8220;Republican&#8221;
&#8220;GOP&#8221;
&#8220;Conservative&#8221;
&#8220;Liberal&#8221;
&#8220;Starr&#8221;
&#8220;Abortion&#8221;
&#8220;Gun&#8221;
&#8220;Gay&#8221;
&#8220;Federalist&#8221;
&#8220;Leonard Leo&#8221;
&#8220;fed-soc.org&#8221;
The time frame of the request is Ms. Kavanaugh&#8217;s start date as town manager in 2016 to present.
</blockquote>
Three days later (July 13) Associated Press Reporter Michael Kunzelman made a substantially different FOIA request of the same subject matter.
<blockquote>
Pursuant to the Act, I am requesting copies of the following public records: all emails sent or received by the following email address since June 16, 2015: <a href="mailto:manager@chevychasesection5.org">manager@chevychasesection5.org</a>.
I would like to receive the information in electronic format.
</blockquote>
Here is the source: <a href="https://ntknetwork.com/revealed-nyt-targets-kavanaughs-wife-looking-for-abortion-gun-gay-federalist-emails/">https://ntknetwork.com/revealed-nyt-targets-kavanaughs-wife-looking-for-abortion-gun-gay-federalist-emails/</a>
The difference between the requests is telling. Eder has already shown partisan bias against Kavanaugh&#8217;s nomination by coauthoring a NYT piece on July 15 that essentially characterized the Judge as a swamp monster. But it&#8217;s clear from his FOIA request that this investigative reporter is much more interested in raking up some partisan muck more than objective reporting.
Virtually nothing about his FOIA request could be characterized as not searching out embarrassing partisan information designed to make Kavanaugh look like a &#8220;Conservative Warrior&#8221; as the title of the July 15th article suggests. In other words, Eder&#8217;s request was not objective or investigative.
By contrast the AP&#8217;s request was literally for everything, all the emails from the day Trump announced he was running for President to the present. It is understandable that Eder would make a more narrow request since FOIAs are sometimes denied for having too wide a scope thus creating an undue burden upon the government agency fulfilling the request. But this is the NYT! The number of times their FOIAs have been rejected is assuredly small. Especially when considering the AP press felt comfortable issuing a much broader request also casts suspicion upon the practicality of Eder&#8217;s focus.
If Eder had made the same request as the AP did he could have electronically searched the documents for those key words anyway. Then he would have had access to all the relevant information not merely a partisan hack of the info he really wanted to write about.
In some sense what is even more disturbing isn&#8217;t just the partisan hit job that this research was designed to create but the lack of professionalism. Because this nomination really does matter. Former Justice Kennedy&#8217;s decisions disappointed conservatives just as much as liberals on numerous occasions. That&#8217;s the nature of being the swing voter on a severely divided court. Replacing him with a genuine principled originalist is a high priority for Trump&#8217;s base and could have significant ramifications for 2020.
In other words, Conservatives have just as much reason as Liberals to find out if there is something insidious about Kavanaugh, some hidden conflict of interest or scandalous character defect. While it feels gross that both the NYT and AP went after his wife, her position as Manager of Chevy Chase Section 5 puts her within the scope of Maryland&#8217;s information act and so these emails are fair game. But the NYT is still essentially the paper of record in America and it&#8217;s important that they truly investigate something like this, not simply try to spin it along our deeply divided partisan lines. This sort of investigative style could accidentally cover up serious problems with Kavanaugh. Especially because this lends credibility to Trump&#8217;s ceaseless cries of fake news that will only feed the alt right/Infowars tribal fire.
The American people deserve better from our paper of record, otherwise there&#8217;s no reason to think that she will remain the paper of record.
A.C. Gleason is a proud Biola University alum, where he met his wonderful wife. He earned his MA in philosophy of religion from Talbot. He co-hosts and co-produces <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://aaronkyle47.blogspot.com/?m%3D1&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1532962707278000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGT0WxXNPxbIDnCTPuuU0qTAZS-FQ" href="https://aaronkyle47.blogspot.com/?m=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The AK47 Podcast</a> with fellow Talbot Alum Kyle Hendricks. You can find more of his writings <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://medium.com/@aaron25gleason&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1532962707278000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEEEKGNYZKo0SbJNiuBALBA9TOVQA" href="https://medium.com/@aaron25gleason" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">on Medium</a> and <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=http://ricochet.com&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1532962707278000&amp;usg=AFQjCNElJ2efk491IEW0UxVr2RbSEs62sQ" href="http://ricochet.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ricochet.com</a> . Follow him on Twitter @ac_gleason and his podcast @aaronkyle47. He denies all accusations that Comrade Real Presence is his alter ego, although he hears that guy is awesome.

GLEASON: New York Times’ Partisan Hit Job On Kavanaugh

Brett Kavanaugh

Conservatism

New York Times

Supreme Court

In their desperate rush to paint President Trump as a brutal xenophobe hell-bent on deporting even the best young immigrants, the media have botched a series of important immigration stories. First, it was the separation of children from their parents at the border, a policy that began under the Obama administration and was mandated by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals; now, it&#8217;s booting unvetted immigrants from the military.
On Thursday, the Associated Press ran with this stunning headline: &#8220;<a href="https://apnews.com/38334c4d061e493fb108bd975b5a1a5d/AP-NewsBreak:-US-Army-quietly-discharging-immigrant-recruits?utm_source=Twitter&amp;utm_campaign=SocialFlow&amp;utm_medium=AP&amp;__twitter_impression=true&amp;__twitter_impression=true">US Army quietly discharging immigrant recruits</a>.&#8221; Now, you might think from that headline that the U.S. Army was quietly discharging immigrant recruits . . . for the sin of being immigrants. But that&#8217;s not true. In paragraph 4 of the article, we learn that some of those discharged were told &#8220;they&#8217;d been labeled as security risks because they have relatives abroad or because the Defense Department had not completed background checks on them.&#8221; Both of which seem like pretty good reasons to discharge potential members of the military.
Only buried some 37 paragraphs into the story do we learn that some 110,000 members of the military have gained citizenship since September 11, 2001 &#8212; which means that a few dozen who were booted for unspecified reasons is a rounding error. We also know that there are some 70,000 non-naturalized members of the military.
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My first reaction was surprise. We have some 70,000 non-naturalized service members in the Armed Forces, and we are also having trouble hitting some recruitment targets. Army being the worst. Military wants more recruits, not less. Didn&#8217;t make sense.
&#8212; John Noonan (@noonanjo) <a href="https://twitter.com/noonanjo/status/1015219465531871235?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 6, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
We also know that just because you sign up to the military doesn&#8217;t mean you get in. So what appears to be happening here is that some people who signed up aren&#8217;t being taken because the DoD hasn&#8217;t finished their background checks or has spotted red flags.
So, is the Trump administration seriously cracking down on good, solid immigrants wanting to join the military? Thus far, no evidence has been presented that suggests the story is true.
Par for the course for the Trump-hating media.

The Associated Press Reported That Trump Was Tossing Immigrants From The Military. That’s Not The Whole Story.

In what could be described as &#8220;historic,&#8221; on Tuesday Republicans in Nevada selected a &#8220;celebrity pimp&#8221; to run for a seat in the state legislature. The pimp, Dennis Hof, is the star of HBO&#8217;s reality series &#8220;Cathouse,&#8221; which revolves around his lucrative brothel business. It is to protect that business that Hof ran for office. And it&#8217;s Donald Trump he credits for his decision to run.
&#8220;It&#8217;s all because Donald Trump was the Christopher Columbus for me,&#8221; Hof told <a href="https://www.apnews.com/2f083777e5d6431389d7e7e5c3398c5b/Legal-pimp-defeats-Nevada-lawmaker-in-GOP-primary-race">AP</a> in a phone interview. &#8220;He found the way and I jumped on it.&#8221;
In his campaign, Hof has marketed himself as &#8220;The Trump of Parhump,&#8221; complete with his own Trump-imitating book, &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Art-Pimp-Mans-Search-Money/dp/1536617466">The Art of the Pimp</a>.&#8221; Here&#8217;s the description of the book, which serves as a mini-bio of Hof:
<blockquote>
Dennis Hof, proprietor of the world-famous Moonlite Bunny Ranch brothel and the P.T. Barnum of prostitution, charts his path to fame and infamy, while dispensing homespun wisdom about sex, sales, money, and how to live as the country&#8217;s most recognizable pimp. In The Art of the Pimp, Dennis Hof offers a hilarious, insightful, behind-the-scenes look at life as the proprietor of The Moonlight Bunny Ranch, the world&#8217;s most famous legal brothel, and recounts his chaotic life as the king of America&#8217;s sex industry. Hof, the star of HBO&#8217;s critically lauded series Cathouse, reveals the tricks of turning tricks, the secrets of his outrageous marketing stunts, and scandalous details of his friendships with porn stars, prostitutes, and politicians.
</blockquote>
It&#8217;s that guy who just defeated a three-term Republican lawmaker and will now face off against Democrat Lesia Romanov in November. Hof is favored to win.
His primary goal for running is the defense of his business, as AP underscores: &#8203;
<blockquote>
Voters in November will decide on closing down brothels in at least one of the seven Nevada counties where they legally operate. The question will be on the ballot in Lyon County, where Hof owns four brothels. Activists are also gathering signatures to try to get a measure on the ballot in Nye County, where Hof owns two more brothels in the desert outside the city of Pahrump.
</blockquote>
Hof previously lost to incumbent James Oscarson when the brothel owner ran as an Independent. Hof says he plans to sell off some of his brothels in the future to better focus on his political career.
While Hof isn&#8217;t actually the first brothel owner to be elected to a political position in the state (Mustang Ranch owner Lance Gilman is a Storey County Commissioner), he is the first official pimp to be elected to the state legislature.

Celebrity Pimp Wins Nevada Republican Primary, Credits Trump

Nevada

Trump Administration

For those disgusted by the media&#8217;s tremendous bias against Israel in its current battle with the terrorist group Hamas, here&#8217;s another piece of evidence showing how the media act as lapdogs for the terrorist group.
In an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/opinion/hamas-israel-media-protests.html">op-ed</a> published by The New York Times on Wednesday, a former AP reporter admitted that in 2008, when Hamas went to war against Israel, he complied with Hamas censorship and did not report that Hamas fighters were disguised as civilians and were being counted as civilians in the death toll. Worse, AP continued to use the death toll throughout the war, knowing that the figures were false.
The journalist, Matti Friedman, who was a desk editor for AP&#8217;s Jerusalem bureau at the time, wrote that he complied because Hamas threatened one of AP&#8217;s reporters in Gaza. Friedman wrote, &#8220;The bureau chief later wrote that printing the truth after the threat to the reporter would have meant &#8216;jeopardizing his life.&#8217; Nonetheless, we used that same casualty toll throughout the conflict and never mentioned the manipulation.&#8221;
Friedman wrote, &#8220;The press could be trusted to present dead human beings not as victims of the terrorist group that controls their lives, or of a tragic confluence of events, but of an unwarranted Israeli slaughter. The willingness of reporters to cooperate with that script gave Hamas the incentive to keep using it.&#8221;
After the Hamas/Israel war in 2014, Friedman <a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/183033/israel-insider-guide?all=1">pointed out</a> that when he was working at AP (from 2006-2011), &#8220;&#8230; the agency had more than 40 staffers covering Israel and the Palestinian territories. That was significantly more news staff than the AP had in China, Russia, or India, or in all of the 50 countries of sub-Saharan Africa combined. It was higher than the total number of news-gathering employees in all the countries where the uprisings of the &#8216;Arab Spring&#8221; eventually erupted&#8230;&#8221; AP <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20141204110131/http://www.ap.org/content/press-release/2014/ap-statement-on-mideast-coverage">protested the charge</a> Friedman made that it had suppressed a story about the Israeli government offering a peace proposal because the AP was biased against Israel, but Mark Lavie, who worked at AP&#8217;s Jerusalem bureau, <a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/185121/former-ap-reporter-confirms-matti-friedman-account">backed Friedman</a>, writing:
<blockquote>
The AP suppressed a world-changing story for no acceptable reason. I am not ascribing motives to the decision&#8211;oh, hell, of course I am. It fit a pattern, described by Matti, of accepting the Palestinian narrative as truth and branding the Israelis as oppressors.
</blockquote>

Former AP Reporter: AP Obeyed Hamas, Used False Stats About Palestinian Casualties In 2008

Hamas

Israel

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced that he was ending the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by his predecessor Barack Obama which gave the leading state sponsor of terrorism billions of dollars without effectively curbing their efforts to build a nuclear arsenal.
Many conservatives hailed the move, including Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/30392/watch-trump-just-shredded-iran-deal-here-are-5-ben-shapiro">Ben Shapiro</a>. 
Many in the mainstream media had a far different response on Twitter, echoing Obama administration talking points about the deal and portraying Trump&#8217;s decision in hyperbolic terms.
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Trump scraps the Iran deal, echoes the bad judgments of Bush. From <a href="https://twitter.com/csdickey?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@csdickey</a> <a href="https://t.co/HUmFY5gbns">https://t.co/HUmFY5gbns</a>
&#8212; The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) <a href="https://twitter.com/thedailybeast/status/993934838448164864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
BREAKING: AP sources: Trump to withdraw from landmark nuclear accord with Iran, dealing blow to U.S. allies.
&#8212; The Associated Press (@AP) <a href="https://twitter.com/AP/status/993896855556755456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Twitter Reacts to Trump&#8217;s Stunning Withdrawal From Iran Nuclear Deal: &#8216;Pathological Liar&#8217; is &#8216;Playing With Fire&#8217; (VIDEO) <a href="https://t.co/HTc2VZTQ6y">https://t.co/HTc2VZTQ6y</a> <a href="https://t.co/SkTUVdhQxZ">pic.twitter.com/SkTUVdhQxZ</a>
&#8212; Mediaite (@Mediaite) <a href="https://twitter.com/Mediaite/status/993937484215209984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Nobel Peace Prize winner tears into Trump for planning to pull out of Iran deal: &#8220;This is so stupid!&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/DDUy2Bsl20">https://t.co/DDUy2Bsl20</a> <a href="https://t.co/b6mn6OrupO">pic.twitter.com/b6mn6OrupO</a>
&#8212; The Hill (@thehill) <a href="https://twitter.com/thehill/status/994026190431277057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 9, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8216;Moscow is &#8216;deeply disappointed&#8217; by Trump&#8217;s decision to pull out from <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IranDeal?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IranDeal</a>&#8216; &#8211; FM <a href="https://t.co/e7VJzsrZOB">https://t.co/e7VJzsrZOB</a>
&#8212; RT (@RT_com) <a href="https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/993981368873861120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Breaking News: President Trump will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, he told the French president, fulfilling a campaign vow but alienating European allies <a href="https://t.co/nVSxQIVnm2">https://t.co/nVSxQIVnm2</a>
&#8212; The New York Times (@nytimes) <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/993877703601291265?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Former President Barack Obama called the U.S. decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear agreement without any Iranian violations of the deal &#8220;misguided&#8221; and said: &#8220;Consistent flouting of agreements that our country is a party to risks eroding America&#8217;s credibility.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/WgQ6t1Xuob">pic.twitter.com/WgQ6t1Xuob</a>
&#8212; AJ+ (@ajplus) <a href="https://twitter.com/ajplus/status/993974339073589248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Others delved into bizarre conspiracy theories.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
WATCH: <a href="https://twitter.com/AliVelshi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AliVelshi</a> explain how the NRA&#8217;s new president, Oliver North, played an integral role in the Iran-Contra deal. <a href="https://t.co/DPOqA2nWiH">https://t.co/DPOqA2nWiH</a>
&#8212; MSNBC (@MSNBC) <a href="https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/993992716802580483?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Perspective | The withdrawal from the Iran deal signals a new power player in Washington: Christian Zionists <a href="https://t.co/HPHSZEuOCy">https://t.co/HPHSZEuOCy</a>
&#8212; Washington Post (@washingtonpost) <a href="https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/993985425369944065?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
CNN responded by lending its voice to the tyrannical Iranian regime by tweeting out the response of its dictatorial president:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani reacts to US President Donald Trump&#8217;s decision to pull out of the Iran deal, saying Trump is not loyal to international commitments <a href="https://t.co/deYkgcWcDc">https://t.co/deYkgcWcDc</a> <a href="https://t.co/xXQ5nYqKYq">pic.twitter.com/xXQ5nYqKYq</a>
&#8212; CNN (@CNN) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN/status/993935244356083712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>

Top 10 Worst Media Reactions On Twitter To Iran Deal Ending

Al Jazeera

Foreign Policy

Iran

Leftism

On Monday, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman resigned after multiple women came forward and accused him of violent physical abuse, and from the way many media outlets reported the story, readers wouldn&#8217;t know that Schneiderman is a Democrat.
Schneiderman&#8217;s political affiliation is important enough that the original source of the story&#8212; The New Yorker, which is a left-leaning publication &#8212; mentioned in the first two lines of its report that Schneiderman is a &#8220;liberal Democratic champion of women&#8217;s rights.&#8221;
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180508014105/http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/386609-multiple-women-accuse-ny-attorney-general-of-physical-misconduct">The Hill</a>&#8216;s Julia Manchester failed to identify Schneiderman&#8217;s political affiliation anywhere in her report, which was also posted at MSN and was the report that Facebook linked to on their trending now section.
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180508013200/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/05/07/four-women-accuse-new-york-attorney-general-eric-schneiderman-of-physical-abuse?utm_term=.f93c32fa31e3">The Washington Post</a>&#8216;s Marwa Eltagouri and Mark Berman waited until the last paragraph in their report to inform readers that Eric Schneiderman is a Democrat.
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180508020551/https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2018/05/07/schneiderman-resigns-hours-after-allegations-of-abuse-made-public-403743">Politico</a>&#8216;s Laura Nahmias failed to identify Schneiderman&#8217;s political affiliation anywhere in her report.
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180508014013/https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/07/politics/eric-schneiderman-violence-allegations/index.html">CNN</a>&#8216;s Sophie Tatum waited until the 12th and final paragraph in her report to inform readers of Schneiderman&#8217;s political affiliation. CNN also did not give the story prime placement on their website as the network prioritized a tweet from Trump over the allegations of a top Democrat beating and threatening women.
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CNN&#8217;s Brian Stelter also conveniently <a href="http://archive.is/0mlb3">failed to report</a> Schneiderman&#8217;s political affiliation in his &#8220;Reliable Sources&#8221; newsletter. 
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180508015939/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/07/nyregion/new-york-attorney-general-eric-schneiderman-abuse.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;clickSource=story-heading&amp;module=first-column-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news">The New York Times</a> and the <a href="http://archive.is/3G13F">Associated Press</a> both waited until the eighth paragraph in their reports to identify Schneiderman as a Democrat.

Media Hides Eric Schneiderman’s Political Affiliation

Politico

The story is huge.
&#8220;China claims Kim Jong Un has agreed to denuclearize Korean Peninsula,&#8221; said the headline. The source: Reuters News Agency, a worldwide wire service known for its accuracy.
The piece was posted at 8 p.m. Tuesday night, according to the article.
&#8220;BEIJING/SEOUL (Reuters) &#8211; North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged his commitment to denuclearization and to meet U.S. officials, China said on Wednesday after his meeting with President Xi Jinping, who promised China would uphold friendship with its isolated neighbor,&#8221; said the lead.
&#8220;It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearisation on the peninsula, in accordance with the will of late President Kim Il Sung and late General Secretary Kim Jong Il,&#8221; Kim Jong Un said, according to Xinhua. Kim is currently in China for a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Wow.
President Trump has pressed North Korea since taking office in January 2017. More, he&#8217;s pushed China to do more about its belligerent neighbor, and taken some actions seen as overkill, like enacting tariffs on Chinese goods. But Trump&#8217;s efforts appear to have paid off, at least at this point.
Yet a look at some of the top news sites in the U.S. turned up little on the story.
The Washington Post had this story as its lead: &#8220;Trump proposal would penalize immigrants who use tax credits, other benefits.&#8221; Beneath that was this piece: &#8220;Meeting of North Korean, Chinese leaders presents a new challenge for Trump.&#8221;
In the story, the Post wrote that the meeting in China is intended to send a message to the United States: &#8220;Any moves on North Korea must go through Xi.&#8221; There&#8217;s no mention of the Reuters revelation.
CNN&#8217;s top story was: &#8220;Stormy Daniels&#8217; lawyer seeks to depose Trump&#8221; (of course). A tiny headline on a side column featured a headline, &#8220;North Korea&#8217;s Kim Jong Un met Xi Jinping on surprise visit to China.&#8221; The story said Kim and Xi were &#8220;discussing giving up the country&#8217;s nuclear weapons,&#8221; but did not say Kim had vowed to give up his nuclear weapons.
A second story was headlined: &#8220;China throws Trump a curveball ahead of his meeting with Kim.&#8221;
The New York Times top headline was about Trump&#8217;s son-in-law Jared Kushner. &#8220;Kushner Resists Sessions&#8217;s Push for Hard-Line Prison Policy.&#8221; On North Korea, The Times offered these stories: &#8220;North Korea Is Firing Up a Reactor. That May Upset Trump-Kim Talks&#8221;: &#8220;Kim Jong-un Met With Xi Jinping in Secret Beijing Visit&#8221;; and &#8220;Bulletproof, Slow and Full of Wine: Kim Jong-un&#8217;s Train.&#8221;
Fox News offered: &#8220;North Korea begins testing experimental reactor at nuclear site despite &#8216;denuclearization&#8217; talk.&#8221; The Wall Street Journal wrote a piece headlined: &#8220;Official Accounts Diverge About Kim Jong Un&#8217;s Visit to China.&#8221;
And the Associated Press, the most widely read news agency in the U.S., wrote a boring, catch-all headline that Journalism 101 professors would frown on: &#8220;Kim, Xi portray strong ties after NKorea leader&#8217;s China trip.&#8221; No mention of the Kim pledge to denuclearize, though.
Trump praised the development, although he expressed caution.
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Received message last night from XI JINPING of China that his meeting with KIM JONG UN went very well and that KIM looks forward to his meeting with me. In the meantime, and unfortunately, maximum sanctions and pressure must be maintained at all cost!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/978938860582440960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Of course, North Korea cannot be trusted as it has repeatedly broken its promises.
Still, one can only imagine the headlines if the development occurred while Barack Obama was president.

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