Our Awful Media – A Never Ending Story

by Buck Throckmorton

NY Times Smears Lara Logan
 
Lara Logan was once a star reporter at CBS, reaching the apex of mainstream media prestige as one of the correspondents on 60 Minutes. Then she did the unthinkable – she started covering stories unfavorable to the left. The media establishment will never forgive her.
 
The New York Times just ran a hit piece on her titled “Lara Logan, Once a Star at CBS News, Is Now One for the Far Right.” (Sorry, no link. Just a few quotes. I refuse to reward those smear merchants.)

“Some of her former CBS News colleagues recalled that when they worked together, her politics were not always easy to categorize.”

Think about that line. Her colleagues were troubled that “her politics were not always easy to categorize.” In other words, they couldn’t determine if she was a loyal member of Team Democrat.
 
That meant she might even be…objective. Oh No!
 

 

 
Seriously, how irreversibly broken is journalism if journalists can’t handle even one person in a newsroom not being a left-wing partisan?
 
Not being properly worshipful of Barack Obama was apparently very problematic, too. Even worse, her Obama-loving co-workers feared that Ms. Logan had “suspicions of the White House’s motives and war strategy.” With that kind of attitude she was clearly at risk of committing journalism against President Lightbringer. That would not be tolerated.

More than half a dozen journalists and executives who worked with Ms. Logan at “60 Minutes,” most of whom spoke anonymously to discuss private interactions with her, said she sometimes revealed political leanings that made them question whether she could objectively cover the Obama administration’s military and foreign policy moves. She appeared increasingly conservative in her politics over the years, they said, and more outspoken about her suspicions of the White House’s motives and war strategy.

In a better world, all journalists would be cynics who questioned any White House’s motives and strategy, regardless of the President’s party. We don’t live in that world.

Ms. Logan’s banishment from mainstream media has hardly restricted her access to the center of gravity in the Republican Party.

How dare she?! Lara Logan was made to walk the media plank for daring to cover the left as critically as the media covers the right. Rather than fading away, she has come roaring back as a superstar in right-of-center media, covering stories that are embargoed by her former co-workers.
 
From the vicious streets of Cairo to war zones across the globe, Lara Logan has experienced more adversity as a journalist than any journalist in the Beltway social circuit. Much more adversity. Rather than respect her, they hate her for betraying the guild and for aggressively covering stories that the MSM buries.
 
Much gratitude to Lara Logan for her toughness and for her professionalism. The Times’ slimy hit piece on her is just a reminder of what a loathsome institution it has become.
 

*****
 
Journalists vs Math
 
Journalists attempting math, and failing, is always entertaining. But this is beyond embarrassing.
 
The math-impaired folks at CNBC are surprised to learn that if you keep adding to an existing amount, without ever subtracting from it, the total only goes up. Mind blown.
 
Student loan debt hits another record high despite payment forbearance [CNBC – 5/10/2022]
 
“Despite.”
 
Payment forbearances have been in place since March 2020. Meanwhile, the University Industrial Complex has continued to push massive amounts of new debt on students over the past two years.
 
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“Despite” the flood of new student loans, and without any required payment of existing student loans, the total outstanding keeps growing to new record highs. Go figure.
 
*****
 
Still More Math-Impaired Left-Wing Writers
 
Speaking of math-impaired writers, Amy Siskind received tremendous scorn for this tone-deaf tweet downplaying the pain of inflation and mocking Fox News for its coverage of how painful inflation has been to Americans.
 

 
Perhaps Ms. Siskind is not that heartless. Instead, I believe that she is simply not bright enough to understand that a decrease in the inflation rate from 8.5% to 8.3% (which are the rates she was crowing about) does not mean that prices are dropping.
 
If a product cost $100 a year ago, and the inflation rate over the past 12 months was 8.5%, the price would now be $108.50. I’m guessing that Ms. Siskind thinks that with inflation “dropping” to 8.3%, that product has now declined in price to $108.30. That’s not how inflation works. In fact, that’s now how math works.
 
If the price is now $108.50 and the inflation rate stays at 8.5%, that product will cost $117.72 in one year. But with inflation “dropping” to 8.3% that product will “only” cost $117.51 in a year.
 
Here’s what consumers see at the checkout line with the inflation numbers that have Ms. Siskind gloating. The 8.3% increase in year #2 would amount to an additional $9.01 price increase, on top of the $8.50 increase in year #1.

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