The Three-Ring Circus that Is 2019 U.S. Justice
I was in London for a few days when the OJ Simpson trial was going on, and, to my astonishment, most of the folks over there were tracking this event far more closely than many Americans. I learned not to assume that foreigners are uninterested in the bizarre goings-on in American justice.
Insofar as that’s true, I’m sure people all around the globe are having an absolute ball watching Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Guiliani, actively tightening the noose around his client’s neck every time he opens his mouth. There are so many aspects of the rise and fall of Donald Trump that defy explanation, things that will merit entire chapters of our history books, but one of the absolute highlights will be the galactic incompetence of his attorney.
If I had a criminal defense lawyers who said what Guiliani told The New Yorker (below), I wouldn’t want to fire him; I’d want to strangle him with my bare hands.
Craig,
Rudolph Giuliani is certainly not the sort of lawyer encountered outside the US. But then he’s been a highly successful politician himself.
In his career he’s held many high public offices, US Associate Attorney General, Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Mayor of New York, etc. As an old school American politician and activist lawyer he is certainly not afraid of controversy.
The US justice system has it’s strengths and weaknesses, Rudolf Giuliani is part of that system.
Rudolph Giuliani is just part of the hysteria gripping US media and public life. In one week, we’ve seen a story by the leftist media outlet “Buzzfeed” repeated by CNN, WP and NYT, as absolutely factually accurate, claiming the Special prosecutor possessed incontrovertible documentation, testimony and independent corroboration of criminal activity by President Trump, only to have the Special Prosecutor’s office deny the existence of such material.
Naturally, Buzzfeed, the NYT, CNN stuck by the story, but with no more information it appears the story is just another in a long list of allegations against the President fade away when asked for substance.
This week the US media again went into hyper-drive, labeling a small group of School boys “racist Nazi Trump Supporters” , on no more evidence than a edited short clip posted on U-tube.
By the weeks end, some of the more responsible US journalists apologized and recanted the story as the true facts became known, while others including Kara Swisher of the New York Times persisted in describing the Covington schoolboys as “Nazi Youth 2019” .
Her justification was that just wearing a hat endorsing President Trump qualified a fifteen year old school boy as an “evil member of the Nazi youth, who will be a life-long sociopath”.
Ruth Graham went further, citing the boys not moving back and apologizing to their abusers, as “school bullies and racist harassers, supporters of domestic violence who seek to cause pain and then blame those who are suffering”.
Admitting, that the alleged chants of “build that wall” were a media invention, graham countered still claimed the story to be correct because “those were the chants going through the kids heads !” ( not only a journalist, but telepathic!).
In this sort of media insanity, Rudolph Giuliani’s personality seems to fit right in, and his more bizarre announcement moderate by comparison.
The American media is no longer held in high regard either within the US or abroad. When 90% of 90 percent of network news coverage of President Trump in 2018 is negative, the public grows weary of bias and inured to journalistic hysteria.
Once respected media institutions have allowed themselves to become no better than the tabloid press.
The American people deserve honest objective reporting, rather than rumor-mongering and partisan propaganda.
Covering the President’s surprise visit to the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial on the National Mall on MLK day, CNN featured democrat Rep Bennie Thompson’s criticism of the president’s visit as being unannounced and only short.
CNN crowed that the President’s explanation that he didn’t want his attendance turned into an excuse for a media scrummage and attract protestors who would detract from the dignity of the occasion, was evidence the policy by the US left of abusing and disrupting the President was working and he was becoming afraid of attending public events.
Curiously, CNN concluded that such conduct was “reclaiming democracy” !
Craig, this is the sort of America you are part of creating. An America of naked partisanship, take no prisoners politics. A media bent on destroying the President at any cost, by fair means or foul, mob rule.
You are just as guilty. By using excessive language, you turn the ordinary into high drama, the merely flawed, into “pure evil”, until the terms become meaningless abuse. Unrelenting abuse, but mindless and lacking any degree of fairness or restraint.
When you eagerly repeat discredited stories and trawl for two-dimensional stories and allegations passed off as facts, you become part of the problem.
Just look at the long campaign to prove Russia is real threat to America and the president has some kind of collusion:
1) On June 12, 2017, Fortune claimed that RT had hacked into and taken over C-SPAN and that C-SPAN “confirmed” it had been hacked. The whole story was false, but only 26% of media outlets retracted the story.
2) December 30, 2016, the Washington Post reported that “Russian hackers penetrated the U.S. electricity grid through a utility in Vermont. Senator Saunders continues to repeat the story, despite being informed the whole story was false, since the malware identified had nothing to do with Russia or with the U.S. electric grid, the whole story was a hoax.
3)On November 24, 2016, the Washington Post published article, that was repeated in a media frnzey by all major outlets, about Russian infiltration into U.S. politics using social media, accusing “more than 200 websites” of being “routine peddlers of Russian propaganda during the election season, with combined audiences of at least 15 million Americans.” In addition, “stories planted or promoted by the disinformation campaign on Facebook were viewed more than 213 million times.”
The story was a hoax.
4) On June 22, 2017, CNN reported that Trump aide Anthony Scaramucci was involved with the Russian Direct Investment Fund, under Senate investigation. Late show host Stephen Colbert had a field day with this item.
The story was a complete invention.
5) Following a story on September 11, 2017, form NBC News and MSNBC emanating from the CIA, Russia was behind a series of attacks on U.S. personnel at the Embassy in Cuba using a sonic or microwave weapon so sophisticated and cunning that Pentagon and CIA scientists were completely foiled, Sen. Cory Gardner, and other legislators, demanded Russia be declared a “state sponsor of terrorism”.
The “attacks” turned out to be merely the sound of an insect (crickets) and the product of the CIA’s over excited imagination.
6) Slate Magazine run a story claiming: Trump Created a Secret Internet Server to Covertly Communicate with a Russian Bank.
The story was immediately refereed to Mueller and widely reported as accurate, especially by the NYT and CNN. Hillary Clinton seized on the story, claiming it to be verified to by the FBI.
The allegation turned out to be a complete fiction. Although Slate retracted the story, the FBI still refuses to comment on what it told HC and if they were the original source of the story.
7) On November 27, 2018, the Guardian published a major story claiming President Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort met with Julian Assange on three different occasions at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The Story was repeated by most media outlets.
The story was completely false.
8). On July 27, 2018, CNN claimed Michael Cohen had told Robert Mueller President Trump knew in advanced about the Trump Tower meeting.
In fact the story was just a series of lies by CNN. In this instance, even the NYT retracted and admitted the story was not only false, but invented by the CNN reporters. CNN, however, refused to discuss how such a clear lie could be published.
9) December 9, 2017, CNN announced a major exclusive: Donald Trump, Jr. was offered by email advanced access to the trove of DNC and Podesta emails published by WikiLeaks(before those emails were made public). MSNBC, the NYT and ABC purported to have “independently confirmed” the information, showing “proof’ of collusion between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks over the hacked emails.
The story was completely false, arising from lazy reporting and inaccurate checking of sources. CNN, MSNBC, NYT, etc all refused to even apologized, reasoning that Donald Trump jnr was really at fault for being the “sort of person who would be involved in such a story”.
10) The current Buzzfeed scandal.
There are literally thousands of these fictitious stories, many emanating from media outlets that once prided themselves on “getting it right”.
Calming it down, “getting it” right begins with yourself. You must ask yourself if you want to continue as part of the problem, or be part of the solution.
Craig,
What do you find so commendable, in the demands by CNN legal analyst Bakari Sellers tweet regarding a School boy confronted with by aggressive and angry protesters, advising ” He is deplorable,” Sellers tweeted. “Some ppl can also be punched in the face.”
CNN’s Ana Navarro then likened Covington parents to paper towels in a toilet. Joining in, “Have you ever seen a more punchable face than this kid’s?” asked CNN personality Reza Aslan.
True to form, the Washington Post then published the boys name and home addresses, while advocating they be physically assaulted.
Now, remember it only takes “good men to do nothing, for evil to flourish”. Where is your sense of decency and righteousness when these boys are being attacked by a viscous hysterical mob ?
You remain silent, because after all, any friend of your enemy is your enemy, and the plight of any victim of your “friends” , no matter how viciously or immorally persecuted must be ignored so you can avoid raising your voice against the inequities of those who you perceive to be on your side ?
I don’t expect a reply, but the next time you prepare a tirade against your perceived enemies, pause and think about the origin of your outrage, and your selective opposition.