The media is about to have a banner week. They all put on their clown masks for trying to spin this Department of Justice Inspector General’s report of FISA abuses under the Obama administration during the 2016 election. The report said that there was no bias, but the totality of the FBI’s actions suggests otherwise. I’ll get to that in the end, but President Trump just signed an executive order combating anti-Semitism on college campuses which sent the liberal media into full meltdown mode after they fell for a bit of fake news. The New York Times can be thanked for spreading this hysteria. They said the order would redefine Judaism as a nationality (via NYT):
President Trump will sign an executive order defining Judaism as a nationality, not just a religion, thus bolstering the Education Department's efforts to stamp out "Boycott Israel" movements on college campuses https://t.co/0avw7eseMc
— NYT Politics (@nytpolitics) December 10, 2019
Declaring that civil rights laws and other minority-protection rules apply to Jews, JUST LIKE HITLER
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) December 11, 2019
Holy moly the takes. The Soviets invented Jewish nationhood, apparently. pic.twitter.com/X7r0KL9GUI
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) December 11, 2019
sweet jesus what is happening to ppl's brains pic.twitter.com/mtPZkCY5N2
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) December 11, 2019
hooooooooly moly pic.twitter.com/zyhLSEIr8j
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) December 11, 2019
it doesn't stop. it never stops pic.twitter.com/FyW0Rw7qCp
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) December 11, 2019
President Trump plans to sign an executive order on Wednesday targeting what he sees as anti-Semitism on college campuses by threatening to withhold federal money from educational institutions that fail to combat discrimination, three administration officials said on Tuesday.
The order will effectively interpret Judaism as a race or nationality, not just a religion, to prompt a federal law penalizing colleges and universities deemed to be shirking their responsibility to foster an open climate for minority students. In recent years, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions — or B.D.S. — movement against Israel has roiled some campuses, leaving some Jewish students feeling unwelcome or attacked.
In signing the order, Mr. Trump will use his executive power to take action where Congress has not, essentially replicating bipartisan legislation that has stalled on Capitol Hill for several years. Prominent Democrats have joined Republicans in promoting such a policy change to combat anti-Semitism as well as the boycott-Israel movement.
But critics complained that such a policy could be used to stifle free speech and legitimate opposition to Israel’s policies toward Palestinians in the name of fighting anti-Semitism.
President @realDonaldTrump signs an executive order expanding Title VI protections of the Civil Rights Act to Jewish students. The order attempts to fight back against BDS and anti-Semitic attacks that have been increasing on college campuses. pic.twitter.com/Wlps5lZTwH
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) December 11, 2019
Actually, it doesn’t. So, enough with the 'this is like Soviet Russia' and 'Trump is Hitler' nonsense. This is fake news. And some of the president’s staunchest critics on the Left even admitted that there is nothing of the sort in the order. So, great job, folks.
Head of the Anti-Defamation League seems to confirm that the executive order on anti-Semitism did not redefine Judaism as a nationality, which means it was not changed at the last minute, just was misreported yesterday: https://t.co/HWbzYVzbVt
— (((Yair Rosenberg))) (@Yair_Rosenberg) December 11, 2019
The freakout over this was bad not just because it was based on poor reporting. It was bad because it will have scared real people. Anyone who did a viral tweet about Trump redefining Jews as a nationality has an obligation to correct, so those people won't be. https://t.co/IKY1KQQVqu
— (((Yair Rosenberg))) (@Yair_Rosenberg) December 11, 2019
I have read that so-called "Jews are a nationality" executive order, which you can read here.https://t.co/rstKoXTVs0
— Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) December 11, 2019
The New York Times completely blew this story. It does not say anything like what they claimed.
More soon...
This is why I am so annoying about the need for the press to be scrupulously accurate and _careful._ If the EO does not in fact redefine Jews as a nationality, the initial reports fanned an unnecessary freakout. https://t.co/rPwNpfCqK9
— Dara Lind (@DLind) December 11, 2019
Just read the executive order over. It does *not* redefine Judaism as a national origin. The Times fucked this one up. https://t.co/nJtyco5dHB
— Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp) December 11, 2019
In the meantime, we had a hearing on the FISA abuse that occurred during the 2016 election, where the media’s narrative about no bias at the FBI was blown up. The report centered on the FBI’s processes in obtaining a FISA spy warrant against former Trump campaign official Carter Page based on the shoddy, unverified, and debunked Trump dossier. The document was compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele who was hired by Fusion GPS, a research firm. And that firm was retained by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democrats. It was a political opposition research file. That was what was cited as credible evidence to spy on the opposing presidential campaign of a rival party. Inspector General Michael Horowitz said someone should be fired over what he has uncovered, but no bias? They never verified a shoddy piece of political opposition research before obtaining this spy warrant because…no bias? If the media can’t report on a simple executive order accurately, you know the spin on this IG report is probably equally shoddy. And it was.
(H/T Twitchy)
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