Derek Donovan: He looks far less grim in person!
Forget right and wrong…
It’s always wrong to take the law into one’s own hands and kill people. What’s more, there are always going to be nut cases – regardless of their affiliation – who will perpetuate this kind of evil.
Far as I can tell, it’s been that way since the dawn of time.
That said, because of the way today’s news media operates – so blatantly partisan – combined with the extreme levels of public animus about everything from Donald Trump to immigration, one has to wonder…
What took so long for something like this to happen?
Ten years ago when I was in the newsroom of the Kansas City Star big time news media editors were gatekeepers.
Sure, the Star’s politics always tilted to the left and once they more-or-less collectively decided who or what was right or who and what was wrong, the newsroom had a way of marching in lockstep…to the extent that readers with differing opinions became infuriated.
Yet, all things considered, there still was a concerted effort to at least pretend to be even handed. But little by little, the layoffs, empty cash coffers and the Internet combined to dilute the process.
In some ways, Star readers rep Derek Donovan helped lead the charge here in KC.
In addition to being extremely thin skinned and fearful for his job security (he was after all hired as lowly head of the newspaper’s archival news library which is way past being extinct.
So instead of gleefully inflicting pain on reporters who fucked up like past reader reps (unless of course it was something painfully obvious like. a name spelling mistake), Donovan acted more as a defender of the realm. Star reporters and editors where mostly adjudged innocent and exonerated, sans the distraction of fair and even handed consideration.
Corrections became little more than a remnant of the past and Donovan repeatedly argued and hung up on readers rather than deal impartially with their issues.
I think retired Star editor Jim Fitzpatrick well could weigh in here.
But that was only the tip of the iceberg.
A handful of years back I used to mostly watch MSNBC for my cable news.
Hey, I voted for Obama and I liked a number of their hosts and reporters.
I forced myself to watch Fox News and Bill O’Reilly.
Even if Fox didn’t always appear to be “fair and balanced,” I figured I might be more fair and balanced for hearing them out.
When I wanted straight news – halfway impartially delivered (if boring) – I went to CNN.
These days?
The last place I look to for fair and balanced reporting is CNN.
They brought in that head dude from NBC a couple years back who decided CNN’s ratings sucked because they were too straight down the middle and fair, that they needed to kick MSNBC’s butt and tilt hard left.
Meanwhile, a funny thing happened at Fox…
Most all of the dirty, leg-hunching dogs like O’Reilly and CEO Roger Ailes got ousted for their misdeeds and the kids of Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch stepped in and cleaned up Dodge City.
Now AMAZINGLY, Fox is the most straight news station of the three.
Sure they still tilt right, but modestly so compared to CNN and MSNBC tilting left.
I digress…
What has happened from top to bottom is that most mainstream news media – particularly those leaning left – have abandoned ship on anything approaching evenhanded news reporting.
It’s truly bizarre.
So we as consumers of news are left to sort things out for ourselves after digesting wildly biased news reports that are dividing the country in a way that the most politicians couldn’t begin to.
And temperatures among readers and viewers are rising…across the board.
Who knows why (yet) this newspaper got shot up today, but it’s not that hard to envision a cultural, political revolution brewing. One that is being sparked among ordinary people being guided into areas of hate, distrust and paranoia.
And unfortunately there’s no end in sight, no turning back…
Could today’s media mow down be the start of a new trend?
Bret Baier’s Special Report with Bret Baier is the best hour of news on TV right now. He shows no favouritism.
CNN has lost it. I watched a little of Wolf Blitzer interview the county executive where the shooting happened today. Blitzer treated him like he was the killer, throwing out all kinds of questions that made no sense. CNN’s ratings are bad but would be non-existent if they lost their airport concession.
Excellent post, Hearne. MSNBC is pure comedy gold, as Chris Matthews, Rachel Madcow et al have completely become unhinged lunatics. Even hardcore lefty progressives (regressives) like comedian Jimmy Dore are constantly skewering Madcow for her ridiculous “Russian Collusion” narrative, all the while ignoring all the rampant corruption and corporatism within the Democratic party. It’s his contention that until the Democrats clean up their own backyard, they’ll never defeat Trump and will in fact lose more voters to him. I tend to agree. But I digress.
CNN is just facking awful. Jeff Toobin nearly committed suicide on air after Justice Kennedy announced his retirement. Jim Acosta embarrasses himself with regularity. And dear God, Chris Cilizza. Just stop, please.
I feel like people get the “editorial” shows on CNN, MSNBC, & Fox confused with the straight news reporting shows. They watch guys like Sean Hannity and think he’s straight reporting the news. He’s not. He is editorializing. Bret Baier is a guy that just reports the news. Jeff Toobin editorializes, Tucker Carlson editorializes, Rachel Madcow editorializes. Laura Ingraham editorializes. So does Don Lemon. These are not news reporters. Jim Acosta editorializes while pretending to be just a “reporter”. Chris Cilizza does the same. And because people alot of times can’t discern who is editorializing and who is just reporting the facts, alot of misinformation gets circulated. Especially by people who don’t follow the news closely. (housewives who rely on the top notch “reporting” of Good Morning America. LOL)
Yeah, Toobin, geez…
He was a loser acquaintance of Art Brisbane at the Star and he was floating through town looking topics up whatever minor news bone anybody would throw to him and Art asked me to humor him in the front lobby. Can’t even remember if I ran his quotes.
But it’s evident he’s a lightweight.
And one who seemingly is more than willing to get his marching orders from up top and tow the company line, no matter what.
Strange, cuz on paper he’s a fairly bright guy.
My take is he’s playing a role at CNN -the kind of role an actor gets when he or she’s cast to play a given character.
Is he for real? Who knows and who really cares.
He’s somewhat obviously preaching to a choir that just wants to be entertained, a la the Tonight Show and Stephen Colbert.
Another thought I’d like to throw out to the readers of KCConfidential:
Do you think it’s a good idea for news outlets to stop publishing the names/pictures of these mass shooters? I personally don’t care what their name was or what they looked like. It only contributes to their “fame” which is a big part of what these nutjobs are out for.
Interesting point…
Except that if it happened here, for example, plenty of locals would be interested in know who he was, where he live and worked, etc
+1000. Dont’make these nut jobs famous. Problem solved.
Maybe.
The complete and metaphysical abrogation of journalistic standards of some semblance of objectivity, leaves us in search of the truth, any truth that can be had from this once revered and admired discipline.
The one damned thing they can get right, even as they politicize it while screaming for gun control (In England, right now, while Tommy Robinson rots in jail, politicians there, are working on a law, that will force people to “dull” their kitchen knives, or face fines and jail time. – Really…, I kid you not.), is the name and picture of the perp.
It’s obviously a “perfect world” rhetorical question. In that perfect world, the answer would be yes, to a problem that didn’t exist.
“Could Today’s Newsroom Shootout Be First of Many?”
Not sure about many, but it could certainly happen again. Especially should a certain jackass continue to troll his base.
Good Comment Nick. We always go high when they go low!
The 2016 election of President Donald Trump – our ‘Dewey defeats Truman’ come true – is the best thing that has ever happened to the public’s perception the ‘news media’.
Media’s strange bedfellow ‘polling credibility’ aside (an empty suit masquerading as ‘substance’), any doubters saw Trump’s triumph totally expose main stream media’s ‘fake news’ bent: talking CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, Washington Post and NY Times.
Anyone imagined was or remains anything theirs beyond ‘cheerleading’ agenda, got their wake up call.
Are no call-letter heroes nor ink-stained wretches even digital age, blemished more than a vestige non-partisan integrity. Ditto voters. That a reality, Kerouac an choice suffer Rachel Maddow MSNBC or kindred spirits Don Lemon CNN/Shepherd Smith FOX? Torey Time’s Ol’ Gus my choice – even a puppet sans voice has more to say. As Leo Durocher said of MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, “you could put a stick in that guy’s chair and it would do as much good”… ditto integriful reportage.
“It’s always wrong to take the law into one’s own hands and kill people.”
– Paul Kersey dissents… so too Kerouac, least in term’s Manson’s “I don’t have to kill them, I think it (pointing to his head), I have it here!” Noble, quaint and oh so out of date, according current popular opinion, demonstrable.
Progress? Land o’ Lincoln & JFK too… affiliations vary, results too often, not. A main stream media network to print: pens, sharp tongues and lies their weapons, spoken & narrative guns & knives. Instigators & perpetrators inciting as they snipe – Hollywood has been Fonda and ever a meathead Reiner too… still an virgin terms common sense be Maher, creaky DeNiro and cuckoo Kathy Griffin who have no clue.
Where do we sign up for the new civil war? Stations everyone, to your battle stations!
The shooter, Ramos, didn’t fit the “Narrative”. In spite of the fervent hopes and dreams of those on the Left, a long standing conflict with the Newspaper was the impetus for the shootings.
A big wheel ‘journalist’ from Reuters, Rob Cox, parasympathetically tweeted out, while the smell of cordite still hung in the air, this measured, circumspect response–
“Reuters Breakingviews editor Rob Cox tweeted, “This is what happens when @realDonaldTrump calls journalists the enemy of the people. Blood is on your hands, Mr. President. Save your thoughts and prayers for your empty soul.”
Swing and a miss.
Hollywood producer and director Judd Apatow, frothing through $100,000.00 worth of dental work, told his Twitter followers that when President Donald Trump offers “thoughts and prayers” to victims of violence, he means “go f**k yourself, we are in charge.”
Thanks Judd, I was pretty sure that was what he meant, but your explanation clarifies it for we rubes out here in the hinterlands.
Michael Moore, yesterday, encouraged Americans to “Put their bodies on the line” to “stop Trump”.
If there was ever a body, that should go “on the line” it’s his. I am thinking of Agustus McCrae cutting his horses throat and using that “body” to absorb rounds from a Henry 50 Caliber canon. We salute you Mike. Here’s a Twinkie, twink.
But, could it happen? Is it more likely now, than ever, that it will happen? Will a Right Wing Conservative decide to attack those whom Trump calls “The Enemy Of The American People”? Maybe.
I don’t think anyone, especially Trump, thought that his comments would justify the murder of “Journalists”. He is speaking rhetorically and expressing his belief (And mine in this case.), that the agenda driven, press pack dogs, that make up 90% of the 4th Estate, have political positions, that are inimical to the middle class, who voted for him. Fox News is a powerful news outlet, but the aggregate power of the combined entities on the Left, is an order of magnitude difference in power and influence. Just look at the “Russian Collusion” delusion. While Hollywood celebrates the Washington Post’s Watergate Scandal with a movie that is actually an apotheosis of Ben Bradlee and Kay Graham, right under Jeff Bezos’ eyes, Democracy Is Dying In Darkness.
Progressives have the megaphone and they, over the last 2 years, have incited violence on an almost daily basis. Maybe if the 4th Estate wasn’t so monopolized by guys like Rob Cox, who jump to conclusions without any evidence, suppress relative context that challenges the Progressive Narrative and refuse to report, for example, on the most explosive, Abuse Of Power Scandal in American History, we on the right, would have nothing to complain about. Fat Chance Michael Moore. Have another Twinkie twink.
The frustration on the right, as this attempted coup takes place in real time, while 90% of the media tries to “Gaslight” the proles in flyover territory, just might create a right wing James T. Hodgkinson, locked and loaded.
Me, I hope he is hiding behind Michael Moore’s carcass as he blazes away.
My perspective is atypical and makes me no friends, but it’s Truth to me: I blame BOTH the leftist democrat party and right-winger gop-ers for all these incessant murderous incidents and acts of violence that we constantly see in the 21st century. These 2 parties over the last 20 plus years have gone WAY to their extremes and stand for little anymore other than constant vitriol, intolerance, and hate. In that toxic environment, OF COURSE otherwise crazy individuals are going to go Even Crazier.
There is no place for anything centrist, rational, reasonable, or good-willed in either party these days. John F. Kennedy would be primaried in today’s leftist party, and dare I say Reagan might too in the current incarnation of the right-winger party. All of these flunkies in both parties: Group-thinking, brainwashed, doctrinaire imbeciles to the last. God, how I hate the 21st century.
Well, make no mistake, things have gotten ridiculously worse in the post Clinton years
I agree with you, but scale matters. The violence and animus from the Left, is dramatically more incendiary than the right. The attacks on Trump supporters in the streets during the campaign and the “call to arms” rhetoric from the left, drowns out the far smaller percentage of whack jobs on the right.
The left has institutionalized and normalized violence against the left with incessant, I mean INCESSANT comparisons of Trump supporters to Nazis.
Tucker Carlson is the only person I see bringing this up – he says that if, in fact, you REALLY believed that Nazis were taking over the country, then, in fact, you would, all of us, be required to take up arms.
Again, it is constant and emanates from the loftiest perches in the 4th Estate and the politicians supported by that same 4th Estate.
I apologize – an oblique move off of the main subject–
I was BSing with my buddy the other day and asked him what the heck ever happened to Andrea Tantaros. He said she is a “difficult” person to work with.
https://lawandcrime.com/celebrity/after-going-through-3-attorneys-former-fox-host-andrea-tantaros-is-now-representing-herself/
Maybe so.
I refuse to and will never apologize for staring at hot chicks. Too bad, on my deathbed, I promise to oogle the nurses with zero, nada, no guilt at all.
Difficult or not, she should be on TV every day. She once flayed Donny Doetsh alive on TV. I loved it, he stammered and stuttered through the roughest 10 minutes he probably ever had in front of a camera. She was sharp.
How about Megyn Kelly? Holy shit what a screw up. Give her the ball!!! What morons.
She is making a zillion dollars a year, all the while Lester Dolt’s ratings are in the tank. How can you not, just hand your ace, or, at least who you thought was going to be your ace, the ball and give her a chance??!!!!????
Stupid, blinkered, pusillanimous Progressive Zucker, in charge of a business that lives on ratings. I got a hundred bucks says that if Trump were running NBC, Megyn Kelly would be on the mound every night.
I see that Jay Z’s new song (?) is calling for someone to murder George Zimmerman.
If there was ever, EVAR a liberal who had his eyes pried open and forced to see the truth, ala “A Clockwork Orange”, it has to be the “half white” George Zimmerman.
Ya think he isn’t “woke”?
Please be a little less lazy. That “head dude from NBC” has a name and it’s Jeff Zucker.
The best person on CNN was the late Anthony Bourdain. He would’ve made a good journalist. Aside from him, the prime-time lineup was nothing much until Chris Cuomo showed up. His interviews are piercing; the only hangup I have with him is his penchant for putting on the totally untrustworthy Kellyanne Conway.
Jeffrey Toobin might’ve gotten a bit wound up re the Kennedy news, but he is a staff writer for The New Yorker and that place doesn’t hire lightweights.
There’s no true “leftist” channel on Basic Cable. MSNBC? Gimme a break. It gives Hugh Hewitt a time slot and regularly brings on the horrible Bill Kristol and slightly less horrible George Will to opine.
Anyone looking for straight news, however dryly delivered, has to go to the wires: AP, Reuters, even Bloomberg.
Boy, oh boy, Rick…
There’s little doubt where your politics lie if you think MSNBC, Como and Toobin are halfway straight down the line.
No shit.
Dude, someone has to right the ship after plowing through (almost) all of the above.
Are you or anyone else going to claim that once you initially heard about Annapolis that you didn’t think our president might’ve been the inspiration for it? Note I said initially heard.
As for left-wing media, you need to hear FAIR’s program Tuesday afternoons @ 6:30 on 90.1 KKFI. Or better yet, Amy Goodman’s years-long show ‘Democracy Now” on the same station every morning @ 8. I don’t agree with every stance on either show, but appreciate their opportunity to express them.
Noop, didn’t occur to me that the shooting was Trump inspired. Any more than any of the myriad shootings….
What doesn’t surprise me is that given that we’re all listening to such extreme anti Trump media bias – rather than the more straight down the line reporting stations like CNN and to a lesser extent MSNBC used to engage it – that such a thought might occur to many people such as yourself.
+1
Sir, this was a newsroom shootout and I was trying to get to the question in your headline. You better believe it could happen again for any twisted reason.
But when People Such As Myself hear 45 declaring our nation’s press an enemy of the people – a phrase straight out of Stalin – then, yeah, each time we’ll wonder.
Need I remind you there’ve already been three deaths in Charlottesville last year wrought from today’s toxic political environment? So I’d have thought that People Such As Yourself who have dabbled in journalism would be more sensitive to the climate we’re in.
Have a great Independence Day – 242 and counting – and to close, this radical lefty pinko approvingly quotes George Will: “Media criticism is the world’s second-oldest profession.”
My point is that today’s news media has all but abandoned even the pretense of being even handed…CNN and the Star being two glaring examples.
And that sets the stage for frustration and angst.
Only a leftist tool would think Trump had any inspiration with that shooting. JFC.
Nuts. The rhetoric is insane.
“CNN’s Toobin continued his panic, predicting that abortion will be banned in 10 to 20 states in less than two years once President Trump appoints another conservative to the Supreme Court. Roe v. Wade, he warned, is “doomed and abortion will be illegal in a significant chunk of this country in 18 months.”
Hollywood embraced the Toobin narrative. Cher tweeted breathlessly: “Some Americans could find themselves in internment camps!!” Actor Don Cheadle claimed that “all of our rights are in the balance.” Actress Bette Midler cited a famous anti-fascist book in her tweet: “And you thought it couldn’t happen here.”
“The View” outdid itself in kooky commentary. Host Whoopi Goldberg went on a lengthy rant that ended with: “Get out of my behind! Get out of my vagina! Get out!” Her co-host Joy Behar whined that the GOP might end up controlling all three branches of government. “What is that called? Dictatorship I believe!”
Chris Matthews–
“MSNBC’s “Hardball” host Chris Matthews argued that the fight over Kennedy’s replacement was “going to be almost like Spanish Civil War stuff.” It’s worth noting that hundreds of thousands of people died in that civil war.
Americans, even white male conservatives, favor leaving Roe v Wade in place.
Politically, it would be a gift from a God that Progressives don’t believe in, if ANY attempt at overturning Roe v Wade were initiated. In truth, the sanctimony over a “women’s right to choose” is a thin patina of hypocrisy covering the real, “please God, PLEASE let them try” hopes of Liberals who know that the effort would place them in political power and station all over America, if it came.
It ain’t gonna happen.
Oh my God this is hilarious!
http://nicholasstixuncensored.blogspot.com/
Sorry, it wouldn’t post, that is Little House On The Prairie stuff
🙁
Sorry Hearne, it is so funny I gotta keep tryin…
http://granitegrok.com/wp-content/uploads/5c56976d09c75c9db5aafc51d44afae8.jpg
The whole Roe vs Wade thing just always confused me. So it’s a baby as long as the woman DECIDES she wants it to be? As soon as she doesn’t want it, she can kill it? Like these two morally bereft degenerate pieces of human trash:
http://bakersfieldnow.com/news/local/police-report-pregnant-woman-had-boyfriend-punch-her-stomach-repeatedly-killing-the-baby
Not to mention the U.S. is just wildly inconsistent on how we treat pregnant women and their unborn. We allow abortions because “it’s not really a baby until it’s born”, but yet if a pregnant woman is killed, the person who killed her can also be charged with murder for the death of the fetus as well. That’s just makes no sense. It’s either a living human being that deserves protection under law, or it’s not.
If anyone punched the stomach of a pregnant dog, they would immediately be ostracized from society and be charged.
Abortion is murder. Why do women have the current right to commit legalized murder of another human being? With all the talk about nazis — this sounds more like nazism than anything else.
Oh and Brian Ross is finally run out of ABC News, along with his brain dead producer. Fake news has consequences, eh Brian?