Time for a tutorial in right-wing media propaganda.
I came across this local print edition of the Epoch Times delivered to the mailbox of someone I know.
It has the look and feel of a standard local paper, w/ a front page featuring local stories.
But let’s look closer…
First let’s zoom in on the top of the front page.
The paper slyly promotes the Epoch Times video website featuring a documentary about “The Real Story of January 6” and a story about “Unusual Blood-clotting” (anti-vax conspiracy theories).
But that’s just the start…
Remember that Page 1 lures in the reader with the promise of local news coverage, with a small-print hint about the paper’s true intent.
But Page 2 is dives in with snippets and quotes and brief items that have a distinct conservative theme.
We’ve now had *2* major accusations against Biden that have been refuted:
1. Robert Hur’s accusation about Biden’s cognition, which was belied by his own words in the transcript.
2. The GOP’s accusation of Biden taking bribes, which fell apart when their witness was indicted.
Republicans have relied heavily on both of these false narratives, and both have crumbled away.
Impeachment is going nowhere and Biden’s SOTU killed their ‘Sleepy Joe’ approach.
That’s a big problem for the GOP.
Why? Two reasons.
1. Now the GOP needS to formulate new lines of attack. It wont be easy.
2. Those two false Biden narratives were supposed ‘cancel out’ the *accurate* liabilities for Trump: his obvious cognitive decline and his blatant corruption. That strategy is gone now.
I really encourage everyone to read this conversation with @SimonWDC (posted by @atrupar without a paywall; thank you Aaron!).
There are some great electoral and political insights that cut through many of the BS media narratives that we are being fed. publicnotice.co/p/simon-rosenb…
I love this part.
Many of us are still so traumatized by 2016 that we've created this mythology around Trump and his abilities.
But the data points to 2016 having been - dare I say - a fluke.
Don't get me wrong, a fluke could happen again.
But not if we put in the hard work.
I see this trauma every day in my conversations with like-minded friends and family.
I see the anxiety, I see the fear, I see the pessimism.
It's as though they are stuck in '16, and the subsequent seven years of elections never happened.
A thread on Hur, Biden, the Special Counsel report, and those who reported on it.
⬇️⬇️⬇️
Yesterday’s biggest failure easily belongs to the media.
They gullibly reported Robert Hur’s blatantly partisan opinions as though they were facts of the case.
Hur played the media like a fiddle, and they danced along to the beat.
Any news outlet with even a hint of experience with the subject matter should have known that Hur’s biased editorializing was as unprofessional as it was irregular, and reported it through that prism.
I’ll take actual election results over pointless polls any day.
So instead of fretting, let’s take a moment to celebrate our big electoral wins this year.
We’ve earned it!
10. Virginia State Senate Special Election
This January 2023 Special Election - which saw Democrat Aaron Rouse flip a red seat blue - foreshadowed what was to come in November:
A good night for VA Democrats and a bad night for VA Republicans.
9. Jacksonville Mayor
Florida has been a major downer for Democrats the last few years, so seeing Democrat Donna Deegan flip the Jacksonville Mayor’s office was a sorely needed, morale-boosting victory.