Just like my parent’s generation knew where they were when JFK was killed or Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, we GenXers remember where we were when the Challenger broke up in its ascent to the heavens and when the Juice was loose – the famous white Ford Bronco chased down the highways of LA . My best friends and I were moving into our first apartment off campus, and we were having a move-in party. Somebody had heard about it on the radio on the way and we tuned in on a 15-inch TV to watch, through the static of over-the-air broadcasts and rabbit ears.
The saga of OJ and his acquittal will always be a waypost in the national discussion about black men and police. OJ was the great retribution for African Americans (especially in LA) after the Rodney King beating and a long history of racist abuse. At the time, I didn’t understand why my fellow Americans who happened to be black paraded the streets when OJ was found not guilty – he clearly was. But sometimes a corrupt system needs correction, and in extreme cases it is good to get the facts wrong but the truth right.
It’s not appropriate to celebrate a murderer who avoided accountability, but the OJ saga will long have a place in the history of civil rights in this country. As OJ himself famously said:
“In America, you get as much justice as you can afford.”
Semi-National Public Radio – All the News That’s Fit to Elect Democrats
In a stunning expose published in the Free Press, a 25-year veteran and senior business editor of National Public Radio, Uri Berliner, describes the transition of NPR from, “an open-minded, curious culture…nerdy, but not knee-jerk, activist, or scolding,” to, “the distilled worldview of a very small segment of the U.S. population.”
In the piece, Mr. Berliner goes on to describe a radical change in content, which drove a radical change in the listenership. In 2011, he says listeners were 26% conservative, 23% independent and 37% liberal. Not quite even, but a good cross section of America.
By 2023, the picture was completely different: only 11 percent described themselves as very or somewhat conservative, 21 percent as middle of the road, and 67 percent of listeners said they were very or somewhat liberal.
He goes on to decry the outfit’s blind swallowing of the Trump-Russia collusion hoax (they had serial liar Adam Schiff on 25 times to tell them about the fantastic evidence only he had seen) but after the Mueller report was released and there was no collusion, there was also absolutely zero mea culpa. No corrections, no apologies, nothing. The newsroom just moved on to the next thing as if they hadn’t led the country down a destructive rabbit hole of a conspiracy theory for more than two years.
He then reports NPR’s ridiculous response to the New York Post reporting about Hunter Biden and his laptop. Quoted from the piece is the NPR managing editor for news at the time:
“We don’t want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don’t want to waste the listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions.”
Mr. Urliner goes on to say that “one of NPR’s best and most fair-minded journalist” said it was good they killed the extremely newsworthy story because it would have helped Trump.
And then, of course, he recalls all of the COVID misinformation spread by the CDC, the NIH and Anthony Fauci, especially regarding the lab leak theory. NPR censored any story that did not accept the state’s dictates and never responded when it became clear: the COVID virus escaped from the Wuhan lab that was creating gain-of-function corona viruses with funding from the US government.
Perhaps most damning, when Mr. Urliner looked into it, he found every news editor – 87 of them – were registered Democrats. Not one Republican. And when he attempted to bring this issue to the forefront, he was ignored. The CEO of NPR agreed to meet and then ghosted him.
And of course, NPR’s response to this bombshell reporting that should force existential changes at the radio network was a milquetoast non-denial denial.
NPR Chief News Executive:
“We’re proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories,” she wrote. “We believe that inclusion — among our staff, with our sourcing, and in our overall coverage — is critical to telling the nuanced stories of this country and our world.”
She added, “None of our work is above scrutiny or critique. We must have vigorous discussions in the newsroom about how we serve the public as a whole.”
I used to love NPR. I haven’t really listened in years for all of the reasons described by Mr. Berliner. It does not sound like there will be any change.
Feds Want to Keep Spying on Americans
Here we go again. The FISA authorization is up for renewal again (after having kicked the can down the road last fall). At issue is Section 702, which allows the NSA to collect Americans data, furnish it to the FBI, the CIA and many other agencies, who promise not to use the data except when narrow conditions are met.
Except they don’t do that. The FISA court itself, and independent agencies have reviewed the program and found these government agencies ignore the law as a practice. You can read all about the gross abuses of the Fourth Amendment taking place every day in America here. And here’s why this program should be shut down today, from the Brennan Institute for Justice:
“Although ostensibly targeted at foreigners, Section 702 surveillance inevitably sweeps in massive amounts of Americans’ communications. Recognizing the impact on Americans’ privacy, Congress required the NSA to “minimize” the sharing, retention, and use of this “incidentally” collected U.S. person data. But the government and the FISA Court have embraced an interpretation of “minimize” that is remarkably… maximal. The NSA shares raw data with multiple other agencies — including the FBI and the CIA — and all of them retain the data for a functional minimum of five years. Moreover, the FBI routinely combs through it looking for Americans’ communications to use in purely domestic cases, even in situations where the FBI lacks a factual predicate to open a full investigation.”
A vote on the rules stalled the renewal of FISA this week, with both Democrats and members of the Republican Freedom Caucus joining together to slow down its reauthorization. Today, the Majority Whip Tom Emmers and Speaker Johnson are attempting again to get the provisions passed.
Quite frankly the whole program is an abomination. It is my hope that the liberty-minded members of both caucuses can continue to join forces to defeat. The great issues of our time are not liberals vs. conservatives, but authoritarians vs. libertarians.
The Bill of Rights was written to prevent PRECISELY this type of state abuse of power. FISA data is the tool of tyrants. It must be ended, immediately.
Excuse Me! There’s a Politician and a CIA Agent in my News Department
Catherine Herridge and Sharyl Attkisson, among others, testified in a House Judiciary Committee Meeting yesterday.
Ms. Herridge – who was without notice summarily fired by CBS News, which also seized her files, as she was reporting on the Hunter Biden story – accused the network of “journalistic rape.” What has not been made clear is why CBS took these actions and whether they were prompted to do so by a government actor.
It stinks to high heaven of corruption, a fascist alliance of the Deep State and a supposed “news” network in order to cover up more damaging facts about the President and his family’s influence peddling business. Ms. Herridge said in her testimony:
When the network of Walter Cronkite seizes your reporting files, including confidential source information, that is an attack on investigative journalism. CBS News’ decision to seize my reporting records crossed a red line that I believe should never be crossed by any media organization. Multiple sources said they were concerned that by working with me to expose government corruption and misconduct they would be identified and exposed.”
Ms Attkisson confirmed that many of her stories were squashed due to phone calls made from interested parties to the leaders at her network – and not for editorial nor factual reasons. It has been known for a decade that CBS killed stories that were unfavorable to then-President Obama, and Ms. Attkisson believes that practice continues to this day.
President Empty Podium
The President of the United States very quietly (and with little coverage by the mainstream networks) began to lay the groundwork for skipping the Presidential Debates in the fall. While I am not surprised – his handlers know that he can’t successfully stand for 90 minutes and speak without note cards, teleprompters and help from those around him – it signals the end of any pretense that this person is capable of the office.
Donald Trump and RFK, Jr. should organize a healthy debate schedule and make sure to have three podiums on stage with the Presidential Seal over the empty podium where the leader of the free world should be.
There can be no greater symbol for the President’s administration than such an image. I do feel bad for the President’s handlers (who presumably run the country for him) in the sense that they will be damned if he shows and damned if he doesn’t.
The Masters Is This Weekend
This old guy will be rooting for Tiger and Phil.
Have a great weekend!!
Justin Weller is the Founder and Editor of The Country and host of the podcast The Country with Justin Weller. Prior to this, he was a general manager and sales leader in startup and big tech firms, interned at Capitol Hill, and was a contributing editor at mxdwn.com. This piece is republished from The Country.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Tampa Free Press.
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