During the darkest days of communism, Romanians had something to brighten their oppressed existence—illicit American movie parties.
Under Nicolae Ceausescu’s dictatorship, Romanians had very little contact with the west. But thanks to Teodor Zamfir who was willing to smuggle VHS tapes, and his translator Ilina Nistor who dubbed them, over 3000 movies made it over to the eastern European country from 1985 to the revolution in 1989. Millions of lives were changed and uplifted as a result.
Donald Trump called out Hillary Clinton for hypocrisy in accusing the GOP of being anti-woman, yet relying on serial philanderer Bill Clinton’s help while running for president. But you wouldn’t have learned that until deep into the front-page story in Wednesday’s New York Times. Political reporter Amy Chozick spent the first several paragraphs piling up shallow evidence of the former friendship between Trump and Bill Clinton in order to accuse Trump of treachery, while dodging and ducking the serious sexual accusations long festering around the former president. As the headline demonstrated, Chozick shifted the focus from Clinton’s sexual past (which led to his impeachment) to Trump’s alleged betrayal of some grand friendship: “Ex-Ally Trump Now Heaps Scorn on Bill Clinton.”
Taking stock is a tradition observed by Jews at Yom Kippur and others who examine their lives at the end of a year and vow to improve in the new year.
One group needs to take stock perhaps more than any other: the mainstream media. They continue to lose readers and viewers, but close their eyes and ears to complaints from the public, guaranteeing continued decline in revenue, along with buyouts and layoffs. The conservative Media Reseach Center has compiled some of the more outrageous statements the media made in 2015.
At Salon, Amanda Marcotte, one of America’s leading deniers that babies are somehow involved in abortions, turned her talent for dehumanizing people to Twitchy for mocking Hollywood writer-director Joss Whedon’s volunteering to put his money behind Planned Parenthood.
"Twitchy, a site started by Michelle Malkin, portrays itself as a news site, but in reality, its main purpose is harnessing the masses of bitter, angry right wingers online and turning them into an army of social media flying monkeys."
Maybe it can be chalked up to a tendency toward reflection at year's end and not the emergence of a refreshing pattern.
This past Sunday on Meet the Press, one of the last people you'd expect to point out that "it's not always policemen" killing black people -- filmmaker Spike Lee -- said just that in plugging his new movie, Chi-Raq, about the endless violence that plagues Chicago.
If Paul Waldman had wanted to put the main argument of his Monday American Prospect column in Obamaesque terms, he might have written that conservative opponents of political correctness have gotten bitter and are clinging to their supposed right (and maybe even their duty) to act like jerks.
“For today's Republican, if people think you're a jerk then you must be doing something right, and the political correctness charge has become an all-purpose answer to criticism of any sort,” contended Waldman. “You say my beliefs are abominable? Take your political correctness and shove it! It's a way to pose as a brave truth-teller, even if all that's actually happening is that people are pointing out that you're a brave crap-teller.”
This week, the Associated Press wrapped up a year of largely pathetic business reporting with three items exemplifying the wire service's habits of data-twisting, sloppiness, and convenient omissions.
A deceptive AP post-Christmas story pretended that Christmas-season "spending" was twice as high as anyone else has predicted. A report on pending home sales omitted a concerned comment from a normally incurably optimistic economist at the National Association of Realtors. Finally, the AP appears to have ignored today's Chicago manufacturing report from the Institute for Supply Management, even though it came in at a level which has previously foreshadowed a nationwide recession.
ABC’s World News Tonight arrived on the political scene eleven minutes into the newscast on Wednesday – but still hyped a “war” Donald Trump declared against the Clintons. David Muir warned of Trump’s “new assault,” and Cecelia Vega warned of his “hurling his harshest words yet,” that Bill Clinton was “one of the great abusers of the world.”
Muir noted “there are many pointing to what Trump has said” about Monica Lewinsky in the past. Vega also made sure to note over tabloid visuals “the twice-divorced billionaire, opening up his own private life to scrutiny, too.” ABC showed a reporter asking Trump “Are your own personal indiscretions fair game?”
Closing out 2015 on the Thursday morning newscasts, NBC’s Today churned one of its most fawning pieces on President Obama as NBC News correspondent Ron Allen reviewed Obama’s top photos by White House photographer Pete Souza while hushed, soft piano music played in the background.
In September, President Barack Obama "committed the U.S. to a new blueprint to eliminate poverty and hunger around the world" in a speech at a United Nations "global summit." A review of his speech's transcript indicates that while he acknowledged the ugly reality that "800 million men, women and children are scraping by on less than $1.25 a day," he made no mention of the fact that just three decades ago, the percentage of humanity in that condition was many time times greater.
A Washington Post item on October 5 reported, per the World Bank, that less than 10 percent of the world's population is in extreme poverty" for the first time ever. Both Obama and the Post failed to give credit where credit is due, namely to the Industrial Revolution and capitalism. In an Investor's Business Daily column last week, Terry Jones set the record straight (links are in original; bolds are mine):
Amanda Terkel at The Huffington Post was stirred to write a story headlined “Catholic Newspaper Names Same-Sex Marriage Plaintiffs 'Persons Of The Year’.” If this seems like a prank headline, it sort of is: the “Catholic” newspaper is the Kansas City-based leftist “social justice warrior” rag calling itself the National Catholic Reporter. Terkel can’t find an ideological label, just the term “independent.”
Last December, Lebron James took a stand on a controversial issue involving race and the police when he wore an “I Can’t Breathe” shirt during warm-ups prior to an NBA game.This December, however, the “social conscience” movement on Twitter didn’t ask Lebron to stand. They asked him to sit.
With New Year’s Eve upon us, NBC’s Today dedicated a segment in its 9:00 a.m. hour on Thursday to looking back at the year in news, politics, and entertainment. Not surprisingly, the liberal network made no mention of the Planned Parenthood baby parts video scandal, Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server, the Clinton Foundation scandal, and Benghazi to name just a few.
So when you’re arguably the greatest football player who ever lived, you get to pretty much say what you want and people will at least listen. Which is awesome because the great former player in question, Jim Brown, happened to say some really great things on the radio.
Since when does TV closely align with reality? Pretty rarely. However, whenever there’s an agenda to be achieved by doing so, you can expect liberals to chime in.
Recently, NPR reported results from a University of California study that revealed TV portrayals of women who have abortions make them whiter, younger, wealthier and less likely to already have children than true statistics reflect.