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Artisanally-Crafted Narratives – ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hey, the hour or so you left that up was enough to accomplish the goal.
Following the shooting at a Georgia school, J.D. Vance gave a speech on the topic of school shootings. He talked about how, sadly, these events are too commonplace and went on to deride the fact that schools are soft targets that need to be made more secure to prevent psychos from enacting this violence.
The AP saw fit to clip his words, coming up with a three-word pull quote to have Vance saying it is simply a “fact of life” as if nothing can be done. The Kamala Harris campaign picked up this callous interpretation, and only after they politicized this errant edited quote – and after millions of impressions for that original post – did the AP delete it and give a new post that “added context.” This was simply shameless false framing done for the sake of delivering a hit talking point against Vance and Trump.
This post replaces an earlier post that was deleted to add context to the partial quote from Vance.
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 6, 2024
Both Kinds of Pinnacles– GETTY IMAGES
Recommended
Profiting off of the images of fallen soldiers is acceptable when condemning Trump for appearing in those same images.
It has been over a week, and the media still strains to make Donald Trump’s recent visit to Arington National Cemetery into a scandal. The latest concerns the alleged confrontation between Trump staff members and a worker at the cemetery, with NPR now coming up with the names of the aides who supposedly accosted the worker. This means the press gets to have at least one more weekend of churning the story despite these disqualifying details:
Police are not investigating this case.
There have been no charges filed.
The Army considers the matter to be closed.
The worker has never come forward with her claims.
But there is another angle to the original story, that being how Trump brought shame and dishonor to the gravesite by photographing himself among the headstones – despite Joe Biden using his own poses by graves in campaign ads without any blowback. In looking at any news item about these scandalous photos, almost all manage to provide images of Trump at Arlington. In almost all cases, these are file photos from Getty Images or AP Photos.
That is to say, these are licensed images being used by news outlets depicting Trump in allegedly offensive positions near graves. So while it is supposedly Trump bringing dishonor to fallen troops by using these pictures, we have to believe it is not offensive for news outlets to generate revenue on these news items nor for the news syndicates to be selling these images of the graves for their own profit.
"It is DISGUSTING that Donald Trump used pictures from a military cemetery for his personal gain!!!"
— Lie-Able Sources (@LieAbleSources) September 6, 2024
So say the news syndicates turning a profit off of the same pictures from the same cemetery. pic.twitter.com/eI2ETlA6Gc
Reporting on the Mirror – AXIOS
This is like a prostitute complaining about being viewed as a sex object.
Axios pretends to look at the way Kamala Harris is quite literally avoiding talking to the press, but saying the outlet is pulling the punch is an understatement. First, it sets the table:
At the very moment she's presenting a different ideology than four years ago, Vice President Kamala Harris isn't getting subjected to the media scrutiny typical for a presidential nominee. Harris is copying President Biden's self-protection media strategy — duck tough interviews and limit improvisational moments.
Then we get these revealing nuggets:
Harris made a decision not to get too deep into specific policies because there wasn't time. For a story this week, Axios asked her campaign about the issue for six days before getting a "no comment." Even some of her own staffers aren't sure where she stands on a range of issues.
Then – in a sign of complete obliviousness of how it is enabling this avoidance behavior – when Axios is spoonfed a nugget about policy from an anonymous staffer, it leaps into action:
A Harris campaign aide explained to Axios that she's no longer pushing Medicare for All because of what she learned during her four years of experience in the White House, and seeing how the Biden administration has expanded coverage through the Affordable Care Act.
How Harris dodges scrutiny https://t.co/2E4kWrXr2z
— Axios (@axios) September 6, 2024
DNC PR Firm – POLITICO
You say this as if it is a big deal.
In a case of absolutely unbridled spin, Politico tries to make a pedestrian story about a Kamala Harris campaign stop and turn it into a glorious example of her steamrolling campaign. The outlet suggests that Trump is looking at an election map and just lost another key location in a dose of his fortunes shrinking.
Because Harris is in New Hampshire.
Some details: That is a state Biden took by 7% – the voter rolls sport a Dem/GOP ratio of about 17/1. And the “crowds” greeting Harris, it has been shown, have been bussed in – the state delivers four electoral votes.
The fact Harris sees a need to campaign in the stronghold would be the approach made by an objective reporter.
New Hampshire is the latest sign of Donald Trump’s shrinking map https://t.co/7YUrYmp9fE
— POLITICO (@politico) September 4, 2024
Anti-Social Media – THE NATION
No one has ever accused The Nation of being a think tank of expansive cerebral content. So when you see this fevered approach to another alleged platform by the Democrats that has “rattled” Republicans, you tend to laugh, rather than scratch your chin in contemplative rumination.
Apparently, the fact that Tim Walz is associated with football is what has the right bothered. So like country music, “USA!” chants, and camo-colored hunting hats, the Democrats have appropriated another touchstone normally seen from the right. The best part however is Dave Zirin suggesting that appealing to the fans of the most popular sport in the country will be a bad move strategically, as the “hypermasculinity and violence” will repel young voters.
The Democratic Party is presenting football as a symbol of the kind of teamwork needed to take down Donald Trump, argues @EdgeofSports. The embrace of football is rattling conservatives, but it may cost Democrats young progressive voters.https://t.co/2WSs0snLln
— The Nation (@thenation) August 26, 2024
