Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who lent his considerable power to push for the ouster of Harvard president Claudine Gay, is fighting back against Business Insider, which published stories accusing Ackman’s wife, Neri Oxman, of plagiarism.
Ackman posted a tweet Tuesday morning in which he accused Nicholas Carlson, the Global Editor-in Chief of Business Insider, of either lying or being misled by others when Carlson reportedly emailed his staff that Ackman had not disputed the claims in the outlet&#8217;s report.
“The facts of the stories have not been disputed by Oxman or her husband Bill Ackman,&#8221; Carlson emailed, according to Ackman. &#8220;Ackman and others have raised concerns about our reporting process, as well as the motivation for publishing the stories.”
“Mr. Carlson is lying or he has been misled by others,” Ackman responded. “I personally disputed the facts (as well as the reporting process) of Business Insider&#8217;s stories initially in an approximately one-hour conversation with a director of Business Insider on Sunday morning beginning at 10:01 a.m.  I did so again in an about 35-minute or so conversation with Martin Varsavsky, a director of Axel Springer who called me unsolicited at 12:34 p.m. later that day.”
The German publishing house Axel Springer <a href="https://variety.com/2015/digital/global/axel-springer-buys-business-insider-343-million-1201604768/">acquired</a> Business insider in 2015.
“In the a.m. call with the Business Insider director, he told me that Business Insider had already launched an investigation of the stories and the reporting processes around them,” Ackman continued. “In light of the investigation, I asked him to have Business Insider publicly release a statement to that effect as I thought it would help mitigate the reputational damage of the stories while they were being investigated. He said he would discuss this request and the other issues I raised with his colleagues and get back to me within ‘an hour or so.’”
Ackman wrote he made “multiple efforts to reach the director by phone and by text when he did not call back within an hour or so,” adding that one text read, “You need to withdraw the story now as you have an investigation pending regarding factual and other review. You need to put this out now. I just got off the phone with Martin [the director of Axel Springer who called me unsolicited] and he agrees.”
Ackman noted that the story about his wife had become the number one story on X.
“He finally called at 3:45 p.m., more than four hours after he said he would call,” Ackman wrote. “On the call, he told me that Axel Springer would be putting out a statement about the investigation.  I was initially encouraged by what he had said, and asked if BI would be withdrawing the stories. He said that they would not be doing so at this time as they stand behind the stories.”
“Shortly, thereafter Axel Springer&#8217;s statement was released which said in part: ‘While the facts of the reports have not been disputed, over the past few days questions have been raised about the motivation and the process leading up to the reporting — questions that we take very seriously,’” Ackman continued. “The fact that both the Editor in Chief of Business Insider and its owner Axel Springer have both falsely stated that the stories were not disputed have greatly contributed to the enormous reputational and emotional damage that have occurred to my wife @NeriOxman. By making these statements, Business Insider and Axel Springer have effectively confirmed that their reporting is entirely factually accurate. This could not be further from the truth.”
Ackman mentioned that his wife had acknowledged “she had inadvertently omitted quotation marks in four paragraphs in her 330-page dissertation, all of which, however, were properly cited. In addition, Neri acknowledged that she had inadvertently omitted to cite one paraphrased sentence in her 330-page dissertation.  Neri did, however, cite the same author whose citation she missed in each of the other eight times she referred to his work in her dissertation, which makes it clear that this one missed citation was unintentional.”
“Shortly after Neri issued her statement, Business Insider published the following headline and the materially false and misleading article which followed. ‘Neri Oxman admits to plagiarizing in her doctoral dissertation after BI report.’”
“Neri admitted to making four clerical errors of punctuation and one missed footnote in her 330-page dissertation, and she apologized for doing so. To this day, she has never admitted to plagiarism.  She has never committed fraud of any kind,” Ackman declared.
Ackman brought up a subsequent email sent by Business Insider alleging other purported plagiarism and an article about that which followed. “The article makes novel and speculative assumptions about what is plagiarism including asserting that definitions of basic terms and words from Wikipedia and quotations from software and hardware manuals that describe products used in Neri&#8217;s research are plagiarism,” Ackman charged.
“Neri hired counsel yesterday and it is going to take weeks to properly respond to all of the assertions and factual misstatements and errors in all of the stories. &#8230; The Oxman plagiarism story was the number one trending story on X with 10 times the number of postings of the next most posted story. It remains one of the top read stories in the world. As a result of the above, Neri has suffered catastrophic reputational damage, and enormous emotional harm.”
“I can&#8217;t believe this is happening,” Ackman concluded.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
On Sunday afternoon, Nicholas Carlson, the Global Editor-in Chief of Business Insider stated in an email to his staff that:
&quot;The facts of the stories have not been disputed by Oxman or her husband Bill Ackman.
Ackman and others have raised concerns about our reporting process,…
&mdash; Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) <a href="https://twitter.com/BillAckman/status/1744702145360720049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 9, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Claudine Gay was the president of Harvard and, as such, a legitimate subject for public scrutiny. The attack on your wife, who is not working as an academic, was motivated by revenge against you. This matters. Even the mafia has a rule against targeting wives and children.
&mdash; Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) <a href="https://twitter.com/realchrisrufo/status/1744386173056036868?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 8, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Some have questioned my commitment. They don’t know me. <a href="https://t.co/4Jmaam148x">https://t.co/4Jmaam148x</a>
&mdash; Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) <a href="https://twitter.com/BillAckman/status/1744367689361981770?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 8, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;

Pershing Square Capital Management LP Chief Executive Officer Bill Ackman Interview

Bill Ackman Readies His Fight Against Business Insider After They Target His Wife

Bill Ackman

Business Insider

&#8220;Victorious&#8221; actress Daniella Monet says she previously asked <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nickelodeon-ratings-crash-amid-lgbtq-push">Nickelodeon</a> to cut what she felt was a &#8220;sexualized&#8221; scene of her, but had her request denied.
Monet, who played Trina Vega on the hit show, <a href="https://www.popsugar.com/entertainment/daniella-monet-victorious-dan-schneider-48934846">told</a> Insider that in one scene, she was told to eat a pickle and apply lip gloss, which the actress felt was inappropriate.
&#8220;Do I wish certain things, like, didn&#8217;t have to be so sexualized?&#8221; Monet said. &#8220;Yeah. A hundred percent.&#8221;
The actress, now 33 years old, added that some of the outfits on the show were &#8220;not age appropriate.&#8221;
&#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t even wear some of that today as an adult,&#8221; she emphasized.
Monet opened up about her experience in what&#8217;s framed as an exposé on Nickelodeon executive Dan Schneider&#8217;s &#8220;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dan-schneider-nickelodeon-empire-massages-hostile-workplace-allegations-inappropriate-costumes-2022-8">disgusting</a>&#8221; empire.
The actress said Schneider wasn&#8217;t the only one culpable for the problems on set, noting that the network&#8217;s department of standards and practices approved of the dubious calls, and hit at Schneider&#8217;s men-dominated writers rooms, <a href="https://www.popsugar.com/entertainment/daniella-monet-victorious-dan-schneider-48934846">according</a> to PopSugar.
Overall, though, Monet said the show was &#8220;very PC, funny, silly, friendly, chill,&#8221; with problems arising &#8220;once in a while.&#8221;
The New York Times in 2021 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/30/arts/dan-schneider-nickelodeon.html">revealed</a> that Schneider was investigated by ViacomCBS, the parent company of Nickelodeon, before his abrupt departure in 2018. The hitmaker was allegedly difficult to work with and some described him as verbally abusive.
“Following many conversations together about next directions and future opportunities, Nickelodeon and our longtime creative partner Dan Schneider/Schneider’s Bakery have agreed to not extend the current deal,” Nickelodeon and Schneider <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/business/media/dan-schneider-nickelodeon.html">said</a> in a joint statement at the time of the exit, “Since several Schneider’s Bakery projects are wrapping up, both sides agreed that this is a natural time for Nickelodeon and Schneider’s Bakery to pursue other opportunities and projects.”
Fellow former Nickelodeon star Jennette McCurdy seems to make reference to Schneider in her shockingly-titled new memoir, “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-child-star-details-abuse-in-new-hit-memoir-im-glad-my-mom-died">I’m Glad My Mom Died</a>.&#8221;
The apparently erratic Nickelodeon executive McCurdy talks about in the memoir is only referred to as “The Creator,” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-child-star-details-abuse-in-new-hit-memoir-im-glad-my-mom-died">The Daily Wire</a> previously reported. This person, McCurdy says, spewed anger-fueled outbursts on set and encouraged the then-underage actress to drink alcohol.
The Hollywood Reporter suggested the exec could be Schneider, who created “iCarly,&#8221; in which McCurdy played Sam Puckett. He also had his hands in other massive hits, including “All That,” “The Amanda Show,” “Drake &amp; Josh,” “Zoey 101,” and, of course, “Victorious.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-child-star-details-abuse-in-new-hit-memoir-im-glad-my-mom-died">Former Child Star Details Abuse In New Hit Memoir ‘I’m Glad My Mom Died’</a>

2012 Halo Awards – Red Carpet

Nickelodeon Actress Says ‘Sexualized’ Scene With Pickle Not Cut From Show, Talks Revealing Outfits

Nickelodeon Actress Says Sexualized Scene With Pickle Not Cut From Show, Talks Revealing Outfits

Child Abuse

Hollywood

Movies

Television

Barstool founder Dave Portnoy is going after Business Insider and anyone connected to an article the outlet published on him earlier this month accusing Portnoy of violent sexual misconduct.
Portnoy appeared on Tuesday’s episode of “Candace” with Daily Wire host Candace Owens to talk about his battle with Business Insider and the reaction the piece got in the media. Since the article dropped on November 4, Portnoy has gone to great pains to debunk it and prove his side of the story, posting DMs and social media posts from the two major accusers quoted in the piece.
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/david-portnoy-produces-messages-from-his-accusers-casting-doubt-on-business-insider-article">evidence</a> that Portnoy has published has cast doubt on the claims made in the Business Insider article while bolstering Portnoy’s recollection of what happened with each woman. Despite some of the additional evidence being out for weeks, Business Insider has yet to update its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/barstool-sports-dave-portnoy-sex-choking-violent-stoolies">article</a> on Portnoy, titled, “‘I was literally screaming in pain’: Young women say they met Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy for sex and it turned violent and humiliating.”
“This is where I think they made a mistake. I don’t mind conflict, and I’ve been an open book for two decades. I have nothing to hide. Everything that’s embarrassing about me is out there,” Portnoy told Owens. “I know they can dig. They can do whatever. There’s nothing.”
“This is a baseball game. We’re in the top of the second. Like, there’s no chance I’m letting this go. They tried to basically discredit me with one of the most heinous crimes you can commit,” Portnoy said, asserting that the accusations made in the Business Insider article are tantamount to rape. “And if they think I’m just gonna walk away, like, ‘Okay, I cannot prove myself,’ they’re terribly mistaken. There is no chance I’m going to let this just kind of disappear in the coming months.”
“You cannot accuse somebody of a crime without [basis],” he continued. “As I’ve said, the way they describe what happened in the story, that’s rape. They’re like, basically, the woman was running away screaming ‘no, no, no,’ and I continued. That did not happen at all.”
Portnoy conducted a roughly hour-long live stream on Friday where he walked through the Business Insider article and laid out a case of reporting bias coupled with sources with questionable motives. He showed evidence of the reporter having anti-Trump bias. He also published messages and social media posts of one of the accusers in the article showing a similar bias.
Portnoy interviewed former President Donald Trump at the White House in 2020 in what was widely viewed as a friendly interview between the then-president and the CEO of Barstool.
Portnoy also published messages from the other accuser, casting doubt on her claims that her relationship with Portnoy left her in a deep depression. In the messages, she allegedly told Portnoy that she had bragged about her having sex with him.
“I’m going to do whatever I can to make sure that they – you know, if you want call it revenge, whatever – that they pay as much as I have the ability to make them pay for what they did, which to me is knowingly falsely accusing me of rape,” Portnoy said. “They went through my entire social life in eight and a half months and I was able to … discredit the two girls that they found in three days. Eight and a half months.”
“So none of it adds up, and they didn’t include any of the stuff that basically casts serious doubt on why she’s telling me these stories,” he said.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Candace Owens Interviews Dave Portnoy: Debunking The Media HIT PIECE" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6CUL3QSX6H0?start=4&#038;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Dave Portnoy

Barstool Founder Dave Portnoy Promises War On Business Insider: ‘There’s No Way I’m Letting This Go’

A Wednesday report from <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-post-hunter-joe-biden-giuliani-red-flags-disinformation-2020-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Business Insider</a> laid out the doubts that have arisen regarding the bombshell story from the New York Post, which alleged that Democratic nominee Joe Biden knew about his son Hunter Biden&#8217;s foreign business deals.
In a story that has since stoked a firestorm of controversy after tech giants <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/unprecedented-suppression-hawley-asks-fec-to-investigate-facebook-twitter-for-quashing-ny-post-hunter-biden-story" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">attempted to suppress it</a>, the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/10/14/email-reveals-how-hunter-biden-introduced-ukrainian-biz-man-to-dad/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">published</a> an April 2015 email that is alleged to have been sent by Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Addressed to Hunter Biden, who sat on Burisma&#8217;s board of directors at the time, the email thanked him for setting up a meeting between Pozharskyi and then-Vice President Biden.
“Dear Hunter, thank you for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent [sic] some time together. It’s realty [sic] an honor and pleasure,” the email reads. Another from 2014 asked Hunter “advice on how you could use your influence” for the good of the company.
According to Business Insider, &#8220;the most glaring questions&#8221; about the story revolve around the authenticity of the emails and the means by which the New York Post obtained them. Seemingly contradictory information from the story&#8217;s major source, as well as the involvement of President Donald Trump&#8217;s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, has also led some to question the story&#8217;s reliability.
The New York Post reported that the emails were obtained from the hard drive of a water-damaged MacBook Pro that was dropped off by an unknown person in April 2019 at a computer repair store in Delaware. The person who dropped off the laptop &#8220;never paid for the service or retrieved it or a hard drive on which its contents were stored, according to the shop owner, who said he tried repeatedly to contact the client.&#8221;
The New York Post did not identify the owner of the computer repair store, but reporters from <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/man-who-reportedly-gave-hunters-laptop-to-rudy-speaks-out-in-bizarre-interview/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Daily Beast</a> later identified him as John Paul Mac Isaac and tracked him down at his store in Wilmington, Delaware.
During a nearly hour-long interview with The Daily Beast, Mac Isaac confirmed that he was the source of the laptop and reportedly offered conflicting accounts of its timeline. &#8220;Throughout the entire interview, Mac Isaac switched back and forth from saying he reached out to law enforcement after viewing the files in the laptop to saying that it was actually the Federal Bureau of Investigation that reached out to him,&#8221; The Daily Beast reported. &#8220;At one point, Isaac claimed that he was emailing someone from the FBI about the laptop. At another point he claimed a special agent from the Baltimore office had contacted him after he alerted the FBI to the device&#8217;s existence. At another point, he said the FBI reached out to him for &#8216;help accessing his drive.'&#8221;
The Daily Beast also made note of the fact that Isaac is &#8220;an avid Trump supporter&#8221; who believes the president&#8217;s impeachment was a &#8220;sham&#8221; and chalks up fear for his life to the Seth Rich conspiracy theory.
The New York Post also reported that in addition to giving the hard drive to the FBI, Mac Isaac gave a copy of the hard drive to Giuliani&#8217;s lawyer, Robert Costello. It was Bannon, they said, who first told them about the hard drive&#8217;s existence last month, and Giuliani who provided them with the hard drive earlier this week.
In an extensive in-depth Twitter thread, Thomas Rid, a professor of strategic studies at Johns Hopkins University&#8217;s School of Advanced International Studies who specializes in disinformation, urged caution regarding the story and offered reasons why he believes it exhibits characteristics of disinformation.
&#8220;This here is highly suspicious behavior,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/RidT/status/1316363540421316609" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-analytics-module="body_link" data-analytics-post-depth="40" data-uri="cdae08adfc6ebfbded22bc2c7316c2e1">Rid tweeted</a>, who claimed he is not a Biden supporter and does not even vote in the United States. &#8220;Especially when viewed in the context of a political campaign. Creative, anonymous, credibility-generating, somewhat plausible. Exactly how a professional would surface disinformation and potentially forgeries.&#8221;
&#8220;Note that photos, which appear to look genuine, could be there simply to add credibility to forged emails surfaced along with the photos. This would be a standard tactic in disinformation operations,&#8221; Rid continued, adding, &#8220;Bottom line: *every individual little fact*—every email, every detail mentioned in an email—must be verified when data is surfaced in such a suspicious way, not just one piece of information, say a photo. It appears that The New York Post did not do that here.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Bottom line: *every individual little fact*—every email, every detail mentioned in an email—must be verified when data is surfaced in such a suspicious way, not just one piece of information, say a photo. It appears that The New York Post did not do that here.
&mdash; Thomas Rid (@RidT) <a href="https://twitter.com/RidT/status/1316370155966996480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 14, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;I see a lot of people rushing to judgement on this story, on both sides of the aisle, claiming to know what’s really going on. That is a mistake,&#8221; Rid said. &#8220;The whole point of this thread was to say: be careful, withhold judgment. Did Hunter Biden himself hand in the laptop? Still unclear. Did the machine contain hacked files? Unclear. Were forgeries added to the mix? Unclear. Was a foreign intelligence service involved? Also unclear[.]&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The whole point of this thread was to say: be careful, withhold judgment. Did Hunter Biden himself hand in the laptop? Still unclear. Did the machine contain hacked files? Unclear. Were forgeries added to the mix? Unclear. Was a foreign intelligence service involved? Also unclear
&mdash; Thomas Rid (@RidT) <a href="https://twitter.com/RidT/status/1316832316090724355?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 15, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The veracity of the New York Post report has arguably been overshadowed by the efforts of tech giants Twitter and Facebook to suppress its reach among their users. During <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-senators-to-subpoena-twitter-ceo-jack-dorsey-for-actively-interfering-in-election" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a brief Thursday press conference</a>, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Josh Hawley (R-MO) announced their intention to subpoena Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to answer for what they described as &#8220;actively interfering&#8221; in the presidential election.
&#8220;Let me be clear,&#8221; Cruz said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know if those Post stories are true or not. Those are questions Vice President Biden should answer. But Twitter and Facebook and Big Tech billionaires don&#8217;t get to censor political speech and actively interfere in the election. That&#8217;s what they&#8217;re doing right now. So, on Tuesday, the Judiciary Committee, the full committee, will be voting on subpoenas to subpoena Jack Dorsey to come before our committee.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-campaign-vp-may-have-had-informal-meeting-with-burisma-exec-at-center-of-bombshell-ny-post-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Biden Campaign: VP May Have Had ‘Informal’ Meeting With Burisma Exec At Center Of Bombshell NY Post Report</a>

New York Post

‘Holes And Red Flags’: Questions Linger Regarding Credibility Of NY Post Hunter Biden Story

Hunter Biden

Joe Biden

Dick&#8217;s Sporting Goods is warning investors that its decision to remove certain &#8220;assault-style&#8221; weapons from its Field &amp; Stream stores cost it dearly and may limit its future gains.
The sporting goods retailer was forced to confront angry shareholders late last week after its stocks tanked more than 4.5% and financial conglomerate J.P. Morgan Chase downgraded Dick&#8217;s shares, from &#8220;overweight&#8221; to &#8220;neutral.&#8221;
&#8220;Gross margin-driven upside appears less probable given 3Q&#8217;s performance, changing comparisons, and rising inventory levels,&#8221; an analyst for J.P. Morgan <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/29/dicks-sporting-goods-faces-tough-road-ahead-after-30percent-surge-this-year-jp-morgan-says.html">told CNBC</a>. The same analyst noted that same-store sales for Dick&#8217;s outlets are expected to grow less than 1% even as the company&#8217;s inventory rises.
&#8220;The analyst pointed out that Dick&#8217;s same-store sales growth for 2019 is expected to be less than 1 percent after averaging 2.1 percent between 2011 and 2015. He also noted that while the company&#8217;s 25 percent Black Friday store discount will help boost sales, it will not boost margins,&#8221; the analyst continued. &#8220;Inventory levels, meanwhile, rose 1 percent in the third quarter after falling 5 percent in the first half of 2018 with inventory days estimated to return back to 2015-2017 levels.&#8221;
Dick&#8217;s says it can trace the downturn not just to an overall retail downturn, but also directly to its decision to take action on &#8220;gun control,&#8221; banning the sales of &#8220;assault-style&#8221; rifles at its Field &amp; Stream affiliated retailer and discontinuing any gun sales to people under the age of 21.
<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/11/29/gun-ban-dents-sales-dicks-sporting-goods/2152134002/">Speaking to USA Today</a>, Lee Bolitsky, Dick&#8217;s chief financial officer, called out the company&#8217;s gun sales plan directly, but also pointed out that gun sales are down across the board &#8212; not just at Field &amp; Stream (largely the result of the Trump administration, which is not the kind of pointed threat to gun rights its predecessor was).
&#8220;In addition to the strategic decisions we made regarding firearms earlier this year, the broader industry has decelerated and remains weak as evidenced by most recent national background check data,&#8221; Bolitsky told investors. &#8220;We believe this also contributed to the decline.&#8221;
But while Bolitsky didn&#8217;t come out and say it directly, it seems that Dick&#8217;s&#8217; decision to cut down on its gun sales had an impact in other areas of its business. Gun owners and pro-gun consumers may not be ale to buy their guns from Dick&#8217;s any longer, but they also seem to have made the conscious decision not to trust Dick&#8217;s as an outfitter for any of their other needs &#8212; particularly their hunting needs.
Dick&#8217;s has seen a decline in sales of its hunting gear overall &#8212; such a decline that they&#8217;re <a href="https://abc13.com/shopping/dicks-considering-removing-all-hunting-gear-from-stores/4802662/">considering removing hunting and outdoors equipment</a> from all of their stores in order to boost their bottom line and cull some of their excess inventory.
&#8220;Months after Dick&#8217;s Sporting Goods made the move to stop selling assault-style rifles, the company is now considering removing all hunting gear,&#8221; a Texas ABC affiliate reported on Friday. &#8220;Dick&#8217;s CEO Edward Stack revealed during a conference call that they removed all hunting gear from 10 stores as a test run.&#8221;
Those stores &#8212; including stores in Texas &#8212; will replace the hunting gear with more &#8220;traditional sporting goods,&#8221; like &#8220;baseball, licensed products, and outerwear.&#8221;

Get Woke, Go Broke? DICK’S Sporting Goods Warns Investors That Decision To Get Rid Of Guns Cost Company Dearly

Gun Control

General Motors says it&#8217;s going to scale back production, closing plants and cutting up to 15% of salaried jobs nationwide in a move they say will help decrease production costs and keep the company &#8220;lean&#8221; and &#8220;agile,&#8221; though they stopped short of blaming Trump administration steel tariffs for an increase in production costs.
<a href="http://www.autonews.com/article/20181126/OEM01/181129806/gm-plans-production-cuts-north-america">Automotive News reports</a> that the Detroit-based automaker, which has been in and out of dire financial straits for nearly a decade, will end production on the Chevrolet Cruz, the Impala, and the all-electric Volt. The company will also end sales of Cadillac XTS and Buick LaCrosse, but only in the United States. Cadillacs, while not entirely popular in the United States, are among GM&#8217;s biggest sellers worldwide, particularly in China.
GM will shutter at least three production plants, Oshawa Assembly in Canada, Lordstown Assembly in Ohio, and Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly in Michigan. Automotive News reports that two additional plants &#8212; a pair of propulsion plants in Michigan and Maryland &#8212; will also grind to a halt by the end of 2019.
<a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/autos/news/general-motors-gm-could-close-north-american-factories-article-1.4044710">The New York Daily News</a> adds that, &#8220;[i]n terms of workforce reduction, GM also plans to cut 15 percent of its 54,000 salaried employees, and even slashing global executive positions by 25 percent. That adds up to more than 8,000 jobs, after nearly 18,000 salaried employees were offered buyout packages last week.&#8221;
Around 6,700 line workers in the United States and Canada will be &#8220;at risk&#8221; of losing their jobs, but the United Auto Workers (UAW) union suggested Monday that layoffs and furloughs would be discussed in upcoming contract meetings. The UAW&#8217;s large-scale contract with GM expires next year and negotiations will begin soon.
Early reports indicated that GM&#8217;s layoffs are the result of steel tariffs levied by the Trump administration in its fledgling trade wars with China, Canada, and the European Union, but GM says that no one factor led to the layoffs. The company, which came out of bankruptcy only a few short years ago, has to take steps to remain &#8220;lean&#8221; and &#8220;agile,&#8221; according to its CEO.
&#8220;The actions we are taking today continue our transformation to be highly agile, resilient and profitable, while giving us the flexibility to invest in the future,&#8221; CEO Mary Barra wrote in a statement released Monday morning.
The move is expected to save GM a lot of money and to help make it competitive with companies like Amazon, Google, and Tesla, which aren&#8217;t traditional automakers, but are dipping their toes into the auto-making industry with fully electric, low-cost, and even self-driving options for consumers.
<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/26/business/gm-oshawa-plant/index.html">CNN reports that</a> the &#8220;company said the plan would make it more efficient, saving $6 billion a year by the end of 2020. GM said its slimmed down production plan would allow it to share technology across all of its vehicles and reduce the amount of time and workers it takes to build cars.&#8221;

General Motors Says It Plans To Cut Production, Close Plants, Lay Off Workers

Donald Trump

Free Trade

ABC News and their parent company Disney paid $177 Million to settle a defamation lawsuit with Beef Products Inc,. according to a CNN <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/09/media/disney-abc-news-pink-slime-settlement/index.html">report</a>. Disney agreed to the settlement in June as the trial entered into its third week.
BPI sued ABC News for close to $2 billion after correspondent Jim Avila reported in May 2012 that the beef company was mixing leaned, textured beef product into their meat. Avila referred to the by-product as &#8220;pink slime,&#8221; and suggested that BPI was adding it without informing customers on the labels. Though several journalists who picked up the story on other outlets acknowledged that the beef additive was not harmful to customers, BPI alleged that the &#8220;pink slime&#8221; label negatively affected their business. 
The report caused many grocery store franchises to remove BPI meat products from their shelves. That along with the consumer petitions condemning the &#8220;pink slime&#8221; caused the meat company to lose 80% of its sales, forcing the closure of three plants and the termination of over 700 employees. 
The trial took place in Elk Point, South Dakota, giving the home advantage to BPI. 
Attorney for the plaintiff Dan Webb condemned ABC News in his opening statement at the <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/abc-pink-slime-trial-opens-scathing-attacks-media-bias-corporate-secrecy-1010391">trial</a>, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Webb told jurors, &#8220;&#8221;It took 30 years to succeed and it took ABC less than 30 days to severely damage the company.&#8221; He continued, &#8220;They ignored the proper name. When you have a major news organization that is calling the product &#8216;slime,&#8217; witnesses will say they can&#8217;t imagine anything worse. It connotes something disgusting, inedible.&#8221; He emphasized, &#8220;It physically doesn&#8217;t look like slime.&#8221;
ABC News stood by their reporting. They released this statement in reaction to the settlement. 
<blockquote>
Although we have concluded that continued litigation of this case is not in the company&#8217;s interests, we remain committed to the vigorous pursuit of truth and the consumer&#8217;s right to know about the products they purchase.
</blockquote>
Though the settlement was confidential, Business Insider <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pink-slime-case-177-million-settlement-2017-8">writes</a> that the initial figure was discovered following the Wednesday release of Walt Disney Co&#8217;s quarterly earnings report. This has led some to speculate that the $177 million figure may be a drop in the bucket of the actual payout to BPI. 
The settlement ranks as one of the highest amounts paid by a media corporation over a defamation suit. 
Webb told CNN, &#8220;Based on all the research we&#8217;ve done, that alone would make it the largest.&#8221; He added, &#8220;As I said at the time, we got an extraordinarily favorable settlement.&#8221;

Disney Just Shelled Out $177 Million After Calling Fast Food Meat ‘Pink Slime’

ABC News

Disney

Organic Food

In an interview with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/michael-hayden-trump-media-non-fact-based-world-view-2017-3">Business Insider</a>&#8217;s Oliver Darcy, Former Central Agency (CIA) Director Michael Hayden described Breitbart as a news media outlet with an illegitimate worldview that operated in a realm of fiction.
&#8220;There are some outlets that have incredibly powerful lenses by which they view the facts they collect. I think the Breitbart and the likes are off the chart in terms of shaping data to meet the preconceptions,&#8221; said Hayden. 
Hayden described Breitbart as animated by an &#8220;illegitimate worldview,&#8221; engaging in distortion of facts:
<blockquote>
&#8220;They have a worldview, and they are playing with it. I think it&#8217;s an illegitimate worldview, and I think it&#8217;s a non-fact-based worldview. It&#8217;s a worldview in which preexisting visions seem to be being used to distort the fact pattern that exists.
</blockquote>
Presumably invited to do so by Darcy, Hayden described as &#8220;very troubling&#8221; the premise that President Donald Trump &#8220;[seems] to value Breitbart reports over data compiled by intelligence agencies.&#8221;
&#8220;You have a Breitbart News story essentially launching the Starfleet of the federal government about one of the most horrible political scandals in American history, if true,&#8221; said Hayden.
&#8220;Breitbart doesn&#8217;t do any creative journalism &#8212; it just moves the parts around,&#8221; said Hayden. He claimed others had told him Breitbart misrepresents information it sources from other news media outlets.
Hayden pushed the left-wing and Democrat narrative of the news media landscape operating in a &#8220;postfact world&#8221; as a function of the rise of right-wing, conservative, and anti-communist news media outlets.
&#8220;It&#8217;s kind of scary &#8212; a postfact world. How does intelligence survive in a postfact world?&#8221; asked Hayden.
Hayden also drew parallels between English-language propaganda outlets operated by the Russian state such as Russia Today (RT) and &#8220;conservative American&#8221; news media outlets and personalities such as the Drudge Report, Sean Hannity, and Breitbart. 
&#8220;There are powerful parallels between the Russian narrative and things being said [by conservative American/pro-Trump news media outlets],&#8221; said Hayden, alleging the existence of &#8220;an amazing consistency&#8221; in perspectives across the aforementioned news media outlets.
No such comments were published regarding the broad commonalities between narratives pushed by left-wing and Democrat-aligned news media outlets (i.e. CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, and The Washington Post) and English-language propaganda outlets operated by both allied and adversarial governments (i.e. the United Kingdom&#8217;s BCC, Canada&#8217;s CBC, France&#8217;s France24, Russia&#8217;s RT and Sputnik, Qatar&#8217;s Al-Jazeera, and Iran&#8217;s PressTV).
Hayden&#8217;s former roles in the federal bureaucracy include Director of the National Security Agency under former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence under former President George W. Bush, and Director of the CIA under former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. 
Hayden retired from the US Air Force in 2008 as a four-star general.

Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k">Twitter</a>.

Menu