Journalism is unethical at Fox News- opinion from Las Vegas Sun

“Until they become conscious they will never rebel..."
George Orwell. So, when will Republicans wake up?

Las Vegas Sun editorial echo: h

ttps://lasvegassun.com/news/2018/nov/30/fox-news-sacrifices-journalistic-ethics-to-protect/

Fox News sacrifices journalistic ethics to protect the the Trump administration

(In other words, FoxNews is Trumpzi speak!)

The extent to which Fox News has become an arm of the Trump administration grows clearer all the time.

This week’s signal came when The Daily Beast revealed emails showing that former Environmental Protection Agency Director Scott Pruitt’s team picked topics for a Fox News interview with Pruitt, was fed all of the questions that he would face and OK’d part of the script.

So much for claims of independence and objectivity by the news channel. Although it’s common for TV news producers to discuss interview topics with subjects and even ask them some pre-interview questions, allowing subjects to call the shots is journalistic malpractice. That’s especially the case when the subject is someone as sleazy as Pruitt, who was up to his eyeballs in ethics scandals when he resigned just 18 months into his job.

And yet its says a lot about the news channel — none of it good — that the Pruitt emails aren’t surprising.

Fox News long ago forfeited any pretense that it was holding Donald Trump accountable. Rather, in promoting conspiracy theories, giving Trump a megaphone for his constant lies and helping him vilify immigrants and other groups, the news channel has become an active partner in the president’s tribal politics and assault on the truth.

In Trump’s attempt to turn Americans against each other, Fox News is one of the tools he relies on the most.

This goes beyond journalistic standards, or even becoming an American version of Pravda to help Trump spread propaganda.

As we’ve stated before, Fox News represents a threat to American democracy by helping Trump whip up his loyalists on the extreme right, gin up hatred and shake people’s confidence in our system of government. Vladimir Putin could hardly ask for more than what Fox News is doing.

The organization also provides Trump with a group of de facto advisers like Sean Hannity and Fox Business Network host Lou Dobbs, with whom Trump routinely consults.

And then there’s Rupert Murdoch. It’s been reported that Trump and the Fox executive chairman talk weekly, and at times daily, which is deeply disturbing considering that Murdoch’s recent track record includes fanning nationalist fervor to help spur the Brexit vote in his British newspaper, The Sun. Murdoch has long worked to erase the line between truth and propaganda in his news publications, where he’s also exhibited a disdain for journalistic ethics and standards.

The sum of all of these parts is that Fox News is doing much more than advocating a certain ideology or editorial position — it’s intentionally lying and trying to manipulate reality. It’s one thing to honestly express an opinion and try to argue the merits of it based on facts and real-world observations. It’s another to unleash a tsunami of lies, paranoia and baseless accusations, to foment violence against others and to foster race baiting and destruction of civic norms.

But so it goes. Trump and the channel have become so intertwined that Hannity and Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro (Ugh!- Trump in drag! Queen Trump!) were emboldened enough to appear onstage with Trump at a campaign rally this fall, where Hannity attacked “fake news” media and touted the president’s campaign slogan.

“The one thing that has made and defined your (failed) presidency more than anything else: promises made, promises kept,” Hannity said.

Fox News tut-tutted, issuing a statement saying it did not condone “any talent participating in campaign events.” But guess what? Hannity and Pirro (Ugh! Trump in drag. Queen Trump redux) haven’t gone anywhere.

The rebuke was less than a hand slap. It was so weak that even Fox News staffers expressed disgust at how the organization had wiped its feet on journalistic ethics.

For Americans who’ve quite understandably had enough, options include using a diverse variety of sources for news. Meanwhile, why would any responsible advertiser want to be associated with the hate-mongering that takes up so much of the network’s bandwidth?

Supporting Trump is one thing. But Fox News is going beyond simply being a cheerleader, and that’s troubling.

Congress must act against Donald Trump sell out with Vladimir Putin

Perhaps, I should have taken lessons in how to speak Russian from my Ukrainian father. If only I were literate in Russian, I could compose a bi-lingual response to Donald Trump to reprimand him for conducting a secret unobserved meeting with Russia's serial assassin, President Vladimir Putin. Now, the poor judgement shown by Donald Trump to meet with Putin, without observers, must be reprimanded.  

A milestone reprimand by Congress to Donald Trump should be duly translated into Russian and preserved like a modern Rosetta Stone. It will be a perennial reminder to all future leaders- do not do this again!

America can't have our leadership meeting with enemies without knowing what was discussed. It's irresponsible to do so.

In fact, the world will never know exactly what was discussed in the 2 plus hour clandestine Trump/Putin exclusive meeting. In fact, only the translators know what was discussed and they didn't take notes.  

Obviously, the two men's "conversation speculation" reports are no better than a dangerous "gossip" game. Remember, playing the game where children sit in a circle, and one begins with a rumor and passes it along until the last player gets to announce how it was translated, at the end of the round?  It might start out with the first person whispering "America first. Make America Great Again"; but, by the time the whisper gets to the last person, the message becomes "America was great but again not so much..." or something screwed up in that fashion.

Dangerous diplomacy - American can't trust this method of gossip leadership

Apparently, even Vladimir Putin understood the value of informing the media about the content of his meeting with Donald Trump because he was at least willing to take questions about the conversation. In so doing, the Russian president got to define the content of the meeting to his own advantage.  In other words, the meeting was a "win-win" for Putin and Donald Trump looked like he was asking favors from "The Russian Godfather".

This irresponsible unpatriotic "poor judgement laden" behavior cannot go without a formal response from the American people. Democrats must rise up and demand accountability from our leadership.  All of Congress must sign a letter of reprimand sent to Donald Trump. Write the letter in 14 point font with a courtesy copy to Secretary of State Tillerson.  In fact, the letter will go into the American Archives as a modern day "Magna Carta". 

In other words, "Thou shalt not meet tête-à-tête with the enemy without objective diplomatic observers". Additionally, the letter should be translated into Russian and the entire document can serve as a Rosetta stone for all future American presidents.

As a result of Putin having the upper hand in the clandestine and secret meeting, the only first hand media reports the world has about the conversation is described in "Pravada", the English language edition is available on line.

Political doomsday clock ticking towards mayhem- Trump "Streeped"

It's like waiting for a political doomsday "gong" to go off somewhere and an era of progress will disappear. 

When Donald Trump becomes Vladimir Putin's new best friend in the international set of dictators and tyrants, those who had confidence that an enlightened process would transcend this political quagmire of Trupzi politics were hoping for a rescuer to save us. The very worst that can happen to progressives, Democrats and people with a brain for ethical leadership is for us to give up hope for a better future. Unfortunately, all political safety net systems have failed and the Electoral College did not support the winner of the Presidential Election's popular vote. Sad.

Meryl Streep attacks Trump in Golden Globes acceptance speech (Donald Trump's thin skin was "Streeped")

In a nearly 6 minute speech Ms. Streep spoke truth to power while accepting a Cecile B. DeMille lifetime achievement award. Ms. Streep is brilliant! She's also intelligent, beautiful and she tells the truth.

Like the brilliant actress Meryl Streep, we must be brave and call out unethical behavior, like pointing out the time when Donald Trump mocked a disabled journalist. Obviously, Ms. Streep knew she would be criticized by Donald Trump because, frankly, the man only knows how to criticize people, it's just in his nature. Nevertheless, Ms. Streep stoop up and spoke truth to power.

Perhaps Donald Trump would have been kinder in his caustic response to criticism by Ms. Streep if she happened to be a Russian.  In the Russian language, what Ms. Streep said was "pravada" - meaning "truth", "dah" (meaning "yes").

Indeed, we must follow Ms. Streep's lead. 

Those of us who are progressives, Democrats and people with a brain wired for ethical leadership must retain hope for a future we can be proud of and stand up "truth to power".  

Our political doomsday clock is clicking towards mayhem

Meanwhile, of course, the political doomsday clock is ticking towards the mayhem we can anticipate after the Trumpzi regime takes hold.  Honestly, I never believed this day was remotely possible. Moreover, I'm embarrassed for all who were wrong minded and delusional enough to believe that Donald Trump can make American great again.  Here's the truth (or "pravda" as the Russians say). Trump will put our tax money into his own pockets, he'll expand his financial empire into Russia and then, like most dictators, he'll flee the country after everybody has had enough, but he'll take our money with him. 

Even worse, Republicans like Senator Mitch McConnell are enabling this politically raucous behavior, because in the smoke of transition, they can get away with stripping our citizens of every earned benefit they can possibly steal money from, so tax cuts can be given to the rich. 

And the mayhem is about to begin. Tick-tock, tick-tock. #Mayday!

Russia's Public Relations Initatives Lack Charm

Thankfully, Senator John McCain will write for Russian news, Pravda, in response to Russian President Putin's lecture of Americans in The New York Times:  

John McCain to write for Pravda in response to Putin's Times op-ed: Spokesman says Arizona senator 'will submit a piece' after Russian president's controversial New York Times byline.  Senator McCain will set the record straight with the Russian people through the news media they read in Pravda.

Thank goodness!  I'm confident Senator McCain will present a balanced response to Putin's op-ed.  

Meanwhile, a CNN op-ed by Tara Sonenshine presents the wrong point of view about Russia in her commentary.  

This media tit-for-tat is in response to the Russian President Vladimir Putin's cunning op-ed article in The New York Times, written to counter what must have been perceived as an exceptional speech by President Obama, defending the use of force to retaliate against the use of a chemical massacre by Syrian President Assad. I doubt Putin was motivated to capture the media spotlight if he didn't find Obama's speech disturbingly compelling.

Tara Sonenshine writes in CNN.com: "All this excitement over recent Russian public diplomacy on Syria is a bit odd to those of us who have followed that diplomacy strategy for over a decade. That Vladimir Putin chose to write an op-ed in The New York Times this week is not at all shocking. It is part of a broader pattern of Russian outreach that began in 2001. (But) What confuses people about Russian public diplomacy is that it often veers from a closed fist approach to an open handshake depending on its narrow objective -- all the while testing America as it seeks to build its own popularity around the world."

Dear Tara, I don't think so.  Russians aren't popular around the world. Although I'm not a state department professional, my extensive travel experience has witnessed the expression on people's faces when they meet me as an American in a foreign nation.  

I've had hosts in foreign countries look at me and my husband to say, "Oh, you're an American. We were afraid you would be Russians".

Frankly, many Russians are arrogant.  In a nutshell, they frequently lack charm.  Although Putin enjoys the narcissism of believing he's irresistible to Russian citizens, it's my opinion that people laugh at him rather than with him, especially when he's kissing fish.  

President Putin's op-ed lecture to Americans was a feeble attempt to somehow be "popular", but Americans aren't biting like a big fish. Rather, Putin's article was an egotistical failure, because he wrote it like he has, somehow, become a wisely sage philosopher or theologian.  This is from a man who uses photo-shop public relations, like kissing fish that he probably didn't even catch himself.

It's even likely Putin didn't write The New York Times op- ed himself.  
Putin is very busy running one of the world's largest countries. Even if he did have spare time to craft carefully worded op-eds, his English is good but not that good. And even one of the world's more narcissistic heads of state is unlikely to take a step this high-stakes without bringing in the Kremlin communications/propaganda staff he surely keeps on hand for precisely such occasions. In any case, the claim that he wrote it also sounds like exactly the sort of thing that a professional PR shop -- one that does a whole lot of business with the Russian government -- is paid to say, according to The Washington Post.

You can betcha' Senator McCain will write his Pravda editorial, albeit he'll surely have it checked for spelling.

And, Senator John McCain has the charm gene.  

President Putin has a charm deficit.

Therein is the difference in credibility.  I suspect Senator McCain's op ed in Pravda will be far more popular in Russia than Putin's was in The New York Times.  Now, it'a about time for President Obama to launch his authority and charm to challenge President Putin's arrogance.  

Moreover, CNN opinion writer Sonenshine should travel more often as an international tourist, rather than as a diplomat, if she wants to write about the impact of Russian public relations initiatives.