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Did Newsweek Provide the Fact-Check of the Year?

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Nov 20, 2024
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Body Checking the Fact-Checkers – NEWSWEEK

In what has to be a contender for Fact-Check of the Year, the brain trust at Newsweek felt the need to delve into the veracity of what was clearly a gag image. First, Donald Trump and his entourage of winners posed on an airplane with a McDonald’s dinner spread before them. Xitter account “bone” used the Grok AI to fabricate a painting that replicated the photo in the style of a Dutch master from the 1700s, claiming the artist was named Dietz Nuutzen. The blatant humorous aspects were in layers.

However, if you are a journalist at Newsweek, anything involving Donald Trump needs to be addressed in the most serious of fashion and debunked thoroughly. Flynn Nicholls was comprehensive in his debunking, researching the “artist,” performing a reverse-image search, and conducting all manner of forensic investigation to root out the fact that this was a manipulated image.

Thankfully, we have Newsweek on the case, protecting us from humor. And they say that the Harris campaign was the one that ran on “joy.”

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Prose & Contradiction – WASHINGTON POST

  • Don’t trust a single word Trump says…until he confirms our nightmare narratives!

A sign that the journalists of this nation are still reeling from the election and unable to rationalize how they failed at their jobs is seen in the WaPo editorial section. Longtime columnist Matt Bai looks at the specter of the imminent presidency of Trump and comes to a conclusion: We should believe him when he says he is going to do some scary stuff!

This will become yet another journalist who rails against Trump being a consummate liar who cannot be believed – until he says something they want to be true.

Trump appears less interested in restoring faith in government than in decimating what little of it remains, and it’s hard to see how that kind of radical experiment ends well, @mattbaidc.bsky.social writes. "I have a few observations about where I think this is all leading." wapo.st/3CAbOFf

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— Washington Post Opinions (@postopinions.bsky.social) November 19, 2024 at 4:35 PM

Pulitzer Prize Nomination-Local Reporting – SAN BERNARDINO SUN

  • We will not be employing any “Bear” puns throughout this entry – you are welcome.

There was the arrest of four individuals in Southern California on charges of suspected insurance fraud. The claims filed said a bear had significantly damaged a vehicle once it managed to get inside. They even had video of this “attack.”

Insurance investigators launched what they dubbed “Operation Bear Claw” to look into the matter deeper. They pored over the footage and even brought in an expert biologist from the state Department of Wildlife, and the conclusion was arrived at: This was not an ursine event that took place – it was a person dressed in a bear suit, with metal claws employed to cause the damage. 

They even recovered the Kodiak cosplay outfit as evidence.

Presentation Paradox – VANITY FAIR

  • It would appear Molly is not familiar with the definition of “differently.”

It is a joy to watch the press complex go through its post-election therapy session and come to grips with how they all failed to stop Donald Trump from getting elected. What we see on display is not true introspection and analysis but insistent wishcasting; “It must be…” is the prevailing mentality on display.

In this category we see Vanity Fair columnist and MSNBC regular Molly Jong-Fast trying to grapple with the aftermath. She suggests that the press take a new approach and cover Donald Trump differently. And what is her proposal?

She suggests the press complex – that has been near obsessed with claiming Trump is an inherent threat to democracy – starts focusing on… democracy:

We in the media need to keep our powder dry for those eventualities, staying clear-eyed without sounding the alarms 24/7. Trump will do outrageous things. But in entering likely one of the most perilous moments for our democracy, we must focus on the assault on essential norms and institutions, because without them, we are lost.

In other words – stay on the subject of Trump ruining the country, while not sounding alarms, because he will assault our foundational principles, so focus on that instead of…the previous focus, on that.

We…think…?

Both Kinds of Standards – POLITICO

  • So you say NOW it is a problem?

Kamala Harris went nearly two months after she was anointed the Democratic Party candidate before she spoke to the press. Joe Biden went 50 days after taking office before he held a formal conference with the media. Throughout his presidency, Biden has been rather taciturn with the press, as he has been well known to give comments and then turn away without further interaction with journalists.

But today it is a problem that Donald Trump has gone all of two weeks since the election without a press conference – as if he has nothing else going on as he forms his new Cabinet and other preparations for taking office once again.