Don't expect media mea culpa - too eager to fall for lying black meat pole smoker Jussie Smollett's hoax

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://nypost.com/2021/12/10/dont-expect-media-mea-culpa-too-eager-to-
fall-for-jussie-smolletts-hoax/

As anyone who has ever been in a relationship can tell you, occasionally
saying “I was wrong and I’m sorry” can go a long way. But the media can
never say “We’re sorry.” Because then Republicans might pounce.

Consider a recent Gallup poll about Americans’ trust in the media. Sixty-
eight percent of Democrats said they had a “great deal” or “fair amount”
of trust. It was 11 percent among Republicans. And 31 percent among
independents. What media executive hears this and doesn’t hear five-alarm
sirens going off in his head?

Answer: Virtually all media executives, because becoming outspoken
defenders of the Left has made the media very popular with Democrats, the
cosseting and flattering of whom is now most of the media’s chief survival
strategy. If no one trusts us except liberals, we’ll only say stuff
liberals like to hear!

Does CNN ever apologize for getting it wrong — putting out false or
deliberately misleading information — again and again and again and again
and again?

No, CNN simply pretends all of this failure derives from good-faith errors
rather than wishcasting and flamboyantly obvious partisan hackery, then
dials the whataboutism up to 11.

Last night a hilariously defiant Oliver Darcy, who like his co-worker
Brian Stelter overtly espouses left-wing talking points (frequently
regurgitating Media Matters posts) in the guise of offering nonpartisan
“media reporting,” sent out a furious newsletter suggesting that no one
should be mocking the media for its weeks of spectacular failures on the
Jussie Smollett hoax.

He complains that Sean Hannity, “and other bad faith media personalities
on the right, used Smollett’s conviction to (predictably) attack the news
media and aim to delegitimize the credibility of the entire press.”

Bad faith? Because the press doesn’t have any other credibility issues? It
was just this one little whoopsie, which we all should ignore so as not to
hurt the feelings of social-fabric-shredding billion-dollar corporations
and their $6 million-a-year talking heads?

“Propagandists,” Darcy continues, “know that their power increases
substantially when they can convince their audiences not to trust other
sources of information. And so, Smollett’s case is very valuable to them.”

Let’s talk about facts
Yeah, and you know what might be a solid way to fight off those who say
you’re not trustworthy, CNN? Actually being trustworthy. Darcy concludes
his snit with the most beautiful piece of Oliver Darcy-ism I’ve ever come
across:

“When you cannot argue on the facts, it is much easier to dismiss a story
in its entirety and go after the credibility of the press for reporting on
it. It’s the timeless play — one that played on repeat during the Trump
administration . . .”

The Smollett story fell apart precisely because of the facts! Arguing the
facts is what Smollett’s detractors have been doing since Day One. It is
Smollett and his defenders who have been arguing ludicrous fiction, and
now that we know the truth, the story therefore should, actually, be
“dismiss[ed] in its entirety.” But anyway, what about Trump???

I realize that deciding to issue only true and accurate reports would
necessitate a disruptive, indeed revolutionary change at CNN that would
begin with the firing of hacks such as Darcy and Stelter, but failing
that, CNN could at least apologize for having breathlessly pumped up the
Smollett hoax until long after everyone with an IQ above the level of
algae had noticed it was fake news.

Instead, CNN still employs Don Lemon, who tipped off Smollett that the
police were on to him. And it has continued to act as an unpaid outside
publicist to Smollett right up to when it ran the headline “Smollett
guilty on some charges,” as though the whole thing is still confusing and
nebulous and maybe he’s only kinda guilty?

Jussie Smollett told a story on Jan. 29, 2019, that seemed far-fetched,
raised eyebrows when he refused to allow police to inspect his phone or
medical records, altered details in a Valentine’s Day interview with Robin
Roberts of “Good Morning America,” and refused to admit his ruse even
after it fell apart later that day, when reports emerged that police had
arrested Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo on suspicion of carrying out a
phony attack in cahoots with the actor.

Implausible details
Bad things happen every day in America, but the details of this story were
really extraordinarily hard to believe, from the day he told it. Who beats
up a guy without really beating him up? Who thinks Chicago is “MAGA
country”? What dudes roam Chicago with a noose and a bottle of bleach in
the dead of winter hoping to run into a black guy so they can gently drape
the noose around his neck and run away without so much as taking his
cellphone? Smollett is an exceptionally dumb guy who overloaded the fake
attack with implausible details, and the everything-is-a-racial-emergency
media ran with it. If you don’t have a functioning bushwa detector, you
simply shouldn’t be in the media game.

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Nevertheless, almost across the board, the media reported it as a fact
that Smollett “was attacked,” or attributed this assertion to police, when
it was never anything but a dubious assertion by an actor. This is basic,
entry-level stuff. I didn’t go to journalism school, but I learned the
trade as a news clerk at the New York City bureau of The Associated Press
starting in 1992. As soon as I started work delivering mail and printing
out stories, I started to internalize an extremely useful phrase uttered
many times a day by our wise city editor, the late Jim Fitzgerald: “Says
who?” Says who, says who, says who. You can’t say this to yourself often
enough when you’re writing up the news.

“Jussie Smollett said he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack”
would have been a true and accurate report, CNN. Joy Reid. Washington
Post.

Simple suggestion to everyone who promoted the hoax: Just say, “I was
wrong and I’m sorry.” It’ll be good for you. It’ll be good for America.

From National Review


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