Fox News buried Mike Pence’s refusal to endorse Donald Trump

Rapidcreek@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 399 points –
Fox News buried Mike Pence’s refusal to endorse Donald Trump
mediamatters.org
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Their #1 favorite method of dishonesty is omission.

Imagine how different this world would be if only the USA had laws requiring news channels to report factual information. Instead they're classified as entertainment and being allowed to destroy our democracy one lie, one "spin" at a time.

They generally do not lie. They simply do not report certain things and over report other things. I have no solution for this or think of a law that could fix it.

They did get stung by Dominion about their libel/slander. They tend to phrase their lies as "just asking questions" or "someone said that..." these days.

I agree there's not much to do when they simply ignore issues or events that don't make them look good or match with their intended manipulations... "narrative" as conservatives like to call it.

Actions like this create such a huge problem when trying to convince conservatives that Donald Trump is a unique and unprecedented danger.

It's one thing when I, a progressive, say that I did not like the most recent Republican president. My conservative neighbors expect me to say that, and therefore ignore the criticism. But it's not just me saying that; it's also Mike Pence, John Bolton, John Kelly, Bill Barr, and Chris Christie. That is a unique level of criticism leveled at their own party's president. But my conservative neighbors don't know that.

Trump has been called "dangerous" by his own:

  • Vice President,
  • Secretary of Defense,
  • Chief of Staff,
  • Attorney General,
  • and other advisors,

yet your typical Republican voter will insist that it's just people on the left disliking a Republican president, just like any other Republican president.

Someone may comment that we all live in our own echo chambers, but the damn near impenetrable conservative bubble has no equivalence on the left. If conservative media doesn't want their audience to know something, conservatives will not know it.

If they're anything like the people in my town, they will just say that those advisors are all RINOs and not real Republicans

Trump seems pretty good at appointing RINOs to advisory positions.

This, and as far as I can tell, the only way to avoid being called a RINO is to completely eschew any kind of critical thinking and absolutely toe the party line regardless of how asinine or nonsensical.

I can think of a few other ways to avoid being called a RINO that doesn't involve abandoning critical thinking or toeing the Republican party line. Tacking a "(D)" behind your name, for example.

The don't thing is that the term RINO was initially coined for people exactly like Trump.

Someone may comment that we all live in our own echo chambers, but the damn near impenetrable conservative bubble has no equivalence on the left.

There's a pretty big left-bubble when it comes to the laws governing the use of force in self defense.

Kyle Rittenhouse, George Zimmerman, Ryan Gainer, Michael Brown... Challenging the consensus (even with video evidence and legal citation) invites insults, threats, comment removal, bans...

I'd put that bubble up against the "Trump" echo chamber any day of the week.

Edit: That vote count demonstrates my point.

Disagreement is completely different from what I was talking about. People on the left are aware of the fact that those individuals claimed self defense; most disagree that it should have counted as self-defense. The fact that you saw their opinions in the first place -- and they saw yours -- shows that. If you think their opinion is wrong, or if they are too unwelcoming to your opinion, that's a separate issue. I'm not even talking about the merits of either argument here, I'm talking about the fact that people on the left at least tend to know what point they are disagreeing with. Non-conservative news outlets will at least report "George Zimmerman Claims Self-Defense," or "Popular Progressive Politician Receives Criticism from Own Party." Right-leaning news outlets outright shelter their audiences from such information.

In my experience of trying to reach out to conservatives, as our culture of respectful disagreement expects me to, I am constantly blown away by the fact that a typical conservative has no idea what the objection to their worldview even is. Trump got elected almost eight years ago at this point, and they will still drop something like, "So what exactly do you people not like about him?"

There are levels to echo chambers. America's Republican voters are sheltered in an iron dome, where dissenting ideas don't even get in at all.

Disagreement is completely different from what I was talking about.

I'm not talking about disagreement. I'm talking about contrary opinions and arguments being actively suppressed in left-leaning forums.

I'm talking about posts and comments being removed, solely because the expressed opinion is unpopular among leftists. I'm talking about people being quietly suspended or banned for suggesting a jury's not-guilty verdict was appropriate.

No, I am not referring to simple disagreement. I'm referring to the left being broadly sheltered from dissent on self defense laws, which is deeply troubling, because legal professionals and informed, layperson jurors regularly side with those dissenting opinions.

We don't even see the self defense laws in left-leaning states drifting toward the opinions held on the left, but presenting their current state is essentially a bannable offense in left-leaning forums.

I stand by my assertion that the left's position on self defense is a massive echo chamber.

This dude was a few police away from becoming the ultimate poster child for Leopards Eating Faces. If anyone believes he would endorse the man who had a mob calling for his head, point them in my direction I got some subscription services to sell them.

Maybe even one cop. I'm not sure exactly where Pence was when Eugene Goodman led the mob away from the still unsecured chamber door to the Senate chambers, or how many armed officers were inside the room, but if Pence was still in the Chambers, it would have been very ugly. At minimum, there would have been at least a few more bullet-riddled traitors at the end of the day.

According to this CNN article, Goodman led the mob away at 2:14 PM and Pence was evacuated from the Senate at 2:30 PM. This PBS article notes that Pence was evacuated from the Senate chamber to a secure location in the building at 2:12 PM. As incompetent as we all may like to think Trump is, his mob came within a minute or two and about a hundred feet of achieving his goal. Because if the mob had gotten their hands on Pence or even one member of congress, Trump would have declared martial law and would very likely still be in office.

And he’s the clear choice of your republiQan party!

Honestly. I just.

Well, I wonder how much they report on Trump being unable to get that bond until Monday...

I'd be surprised if they didn't.

Why’s is this news? They are a conservative propaganda outlet. Why would they report this?