Progressive Fake News Proven as ABC suspends Reporter for Lying - Most News Outlets carried false story

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Last Friday the Coltons Point Times responded to the first release of an ABC News report by commenting on the Michael Flynn Plea Bargain article on Yahoo saying it was false reporting.  In a matter of minutes many major news outlets had rebroadcast the story with the false information.

As we suspected, the ABC News story turned out to be false.  Yet throughout the entire day into the late evening the main street media continued to run the false story.  Ironically, those media news outlets carried the ABC false news report without checking the facts.  By doing so they all violated the code of ethics of journalism and demonstrated their is no credibility even at the highest levels of reporting in America.

To make matters worse the ABC News department under the direction of former Bill Clinton Press Secretary George Stephanopoulos, first tried to "clarify" the false report before pressure from the other media forced them to release a correction.  Perhaps he should be terminated for allowing this anti-Trump, anti-conservative environment to persist in the bowels of major network news broadcasters.

Is not this an example of the same "collusion" between the media to promote fake news as the media is trying to convict the Trump Administration of "collusion" with the Russians?  Every outlet that ran the fake story without verifying the facts is guilty of promulgating the undermining of a free press in America.

It is time to stop the Internet fake news machine where money talks and facts walk, stop the proliferation biased media outlets with no interest in the truth, and stop the breakdown of common sense and morality in life.  All media outlets running the fake story have an obligation to publicly acknowledge this blatant lie, and make a correction.  They chose to run the fake news without verifying the facts.

More important, the people of America who long ago realized the chicanery in the media and lost faith in the institution of the press, deserve action to stop this nonsense and polarization.  We need to redefine who is the Free Press that deserves Constitutional protection, and strip that protection from all the biased and special interest media flooding the airways that do not deserve it.  It is also time fake stories should be subject to legal liability consequences.

Here is the result of the collapse of the free press in America.

           

After erroneous Flynn report, ABC News suspends Brian Ross

JOCELYN NOVECK 2 hours 39 minutes ago 

In Nov. 16, 2015 photo provided by ABC, correspondent Brian Ross speaks on Good Morning America, which airs on the ABC Television Network, in New York. ABC has suspended investigative reporter Ross Saturday, Dec. 2, 2017, for four weeks without pay for the network’s incorrect Michael Flynn report on Friday. (Fred Lee/ABC via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — ABC News on Saturday suspended investigative reporter Brian Ross for four weeks without pay for his erroneous report on Michael Flynn, which it called a "serious error."

Ross, citing an unnamed confidant of Flynn, the former national security adviser, had reported Friday that then-candidate Donald Trump had directed Flynn to make contact with the Russians. That would have been an explosive development in the ongoing investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to interfere in the election. But hours later, Ross clarified his report on the evening news, saying that his source now said Trump had done so not as a candidate, but as president-elect. At that point, he said, Trump had asked Flynn to contact the Russians about issues including working together to fight ISIS.

ABC was widely criticized for merely clarifying and not correcting the report. It issued a correction later in the evening.

"We deeply regret and apologize for the serious error we made yesterday," the network said in a statement Saturday. "The reporting conveyed by Brian Ross during the special report had not been fully vetted through our editorial standards process. As a result of our continued reporting over the next several hours ultimately we determined the information was wrong and we corrected the mistake on air and online.

"It is vital we get the story right and retain the trust we have built with our audience — these are our core principles. We fell far short of that yesterday. Effective immediately, Brian Ross will be suspended for four weeks without pay."

The news brought swift reaction from Trump, who tweeted: "Congratulations to @ABC News for suspending Brian Ross for his horrendously inaccurate and dishonest report on the Russia, Russia, Russia Witch Hunt. More Networks and "papers" should do the same with their Fake News!"

As for Ross, who is ABC's chief investigative correspondent, he tweeted: "My job is to hold people accountable and that's why I agree with being held accountable myself."

Ross, 69, joined the network in 1994. He has won a slew of journalism awards, including, according to his ABC bio, six George Polk awards, six Peabody awards and two Emmys, among others.

He also, though, has drawn criticism for previous errors. In just one example, ABC had to apologize in 2012 when Ross reported on "Good Morning America" that James Holmes, the suspect in the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado, might be connected to the tea party, based on a name listed on a web page. It turned out to be a different "Jim Holmes." Ross was criticized for politicizing the story with the error.

Journalism analyst Roy Peter Clark, senior scholar at the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit journalism school based in Florida, noted that while reporting errors are always serious, the current media climate — in which the president is accusing mainstream outlets of purveying "fake news" — renders the stakes even higher.

"There has been a significant change in the political culture in the last two years," Clark said. "That change has had many consequences for the practice of journalism. When the president of the United States refers to the press collectively as an enemy of the people, the people who support that view will interpret certain acts of journalism as being evidence that the president is correct."

"The problem," Clark added, "is that a mistake like this, even though it's ultimately corrected, and the reporter punished for it, feeds into a narrative that is now poisonous. When there is a clear mistake, it can be translated by folks who are attacking the press as bias. I think it's very important for journalists in this political culture to be more aggressive, and more cautious at the same time."

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News Bulletin - Donald Trump moves ahead of Hillary Clinton for the first time since May according to latest ABC News Washington Post tracking poll!

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Trump gains 13 percent in past few days in stunning reversal of polling data, now leads in voter enthusiasm and toss up states!

As of today, Tuesday, November 1, Trump has powered into the lead in the national poll and has closed ground in numerous toss up states with most polls now showing the race too close to call. 

While politicians debate the people speak and so far, the news is not good for the Clinton campaign.  In spite of a valiant effort by ABC and the Washington Post to explain away the Trump surge, indicative of their long opposition to the GOP standard-bearer, the facts are facts.

Trump has gained 13 percent from October 23 to October 30.

Trump voter enthusiasm is 8 percent ahead of Clinton, which represents a 7 percent loss in enthusiasm by Clinton.

In five ABC News designated toss up states, Trump now leads 48 percent to 41 percent, an astounding advantage ABC claims is not significant.

Fasten your seat belts, there are just seven days until the election.

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Hillary finishes greatest poll crash in presidential history - Sunday the margin hit 1%!

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The astonishing poll collapse of the Hillary Clinton campaign in the ABC News Washington Post tracking survey dropped to a single digit lead Sunday, a change of 11 points in one week.  Her is what the Washington Post had to say in explaining the amazing fall.

Post-ABC poll finds tight presidential race, with mixed reaction to FBI’s review of Clinton’s emails

"Republicans' growing unity behind their presidential nominee, Donald Trump, has helped pull him just 1 percentage point behind Hillary Clinton and has placed GOP leaders who resist him in a vulnerable position, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News Tracking Poll."

According to the Post they explain the collapse in the following way.

"Greater Republican unity has buoyed Trump's rising support, which has wavered throughout the year. Trump's 87 percent support among self-identified Republicans, ticking up from 83 percent last week, nearly matches Clinton's 88 percent support among Democrats. Independents also have moved sharply in Trump's direction, from favoring Clinton by eight points one week ago to backing Trump by 19 points."

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ABC News Washington Post Poll completes Historic Clinton Collapse before FBI thunderbolt - will it now fall off the cliff?

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More Weiner Woes as Hillary Clinton caught between Bill Clinton and Anthony Weiner sexual antics.

Today ABC announced Clinton's lead now 2%, within margin of error, just five days after the same poll showed a 12% Clinton landslide!

As the liberal media rushes to explain away the stunning FBI reopening of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, the ABC News tracking poll reported this morning, Saturday, Clinton now has a 2% lead over Trump.  Of course this was before the FBI report yesterday afternoon.

Of course, ABC and the Washington Post have no logical explanation for the greatest poll collapse in presidential history as ABC reported a 12 or 13% lead for Clinton just five days ago and this morning reported a 2% lead.  No candidate for president has ever lost a double-digit lead in just five days.

Professional apologists for the network blamed the dramatic collapse on a settling of voters into the Trump column, yet this supposed settling happened before the FBI bombshell hit the news.  Just a few days ago liberal media said the election was over based on the double-digit lead of Clinton, a lead that has now evaporated into thin air.

The Clinton campaign demands the FBI release the newly discovered emails from the Anthony Weiner criminal investigation, after refusing to discuss them for the past year.  Mr. Weiner, a former disgraced Democratic congressman from New York, is married to Huma Abedin, the top aide to Clinton who has been her eyes and ears for 20 years. Is this a desperate move that could backfire, if Weiner's wife kept emails on her husband's computer, only time will tell.

All major tracking polls show the race a dead heat for the first time.  Gone is the news media speculation that there would be a Clinton landslide.  News media like ABC News and the Washington Post have a lot to explain and the next round of polls should show for the first time the real status of the election.

Tactics by the biased news media to attempt to influence the election should be a matter of debate for years to come.

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FYI - Must Read Articles of Interest Today October 7, 2016

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Click link to shared stories.

Hurricane Matthew

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/57f604f9e4b087a29a5486fd

Hurricane Matthew: Hundreds dead in Haiti storm disaster

The death toll in Haiti as a result of Hurricane Matthew - the most powerful Caribbean storm in a decade - has soared to more than 400, officials say.

Some 50 people were reported killed in the town of Roche-a-Bateau alone

The nearby city of Jeremie saw 80% of its buildings levelled. In Sud province 30,000 homes were destroyed.

Category Three Matthew, with sustained winds of 120mph (193km/h), is heading up the coastline of the US state of Florida but has not made landfall.

It remains unclear whether it will do so.

At 08:00 local time (12:00 GMT) Matthew was off the Florida coast, about 45 miles east of Daytona Beach and moving north-west at about 13mph, the National Hurricane Center said.

§                       Live updates on Florida

§                       Hurricane Matthew in pictures

§                       Drudge Report kicks up storm

§                       Haitians describe hurricane ordeal

§                       Hurricane response: How do Haiti and Florida compare?

One Senator told AFP news agency that at least 400 people had died. Reuters news agency put the death toll at 478, quoting Haitian officials, but this has not been independently confirmed.

Complete BBC article

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-37582009

Russian threatens United States over Syria

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/russia-warns-us-not-intervene-syria-threatens-shoot-181512495--abc-news-topstories.html

The destruction of Aleppo

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/nation-world/world/article106400962.html

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Obamaville March 1 - Pundits Punt on Veracity

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Apples are Oranges to Media Experts

Time goes by ever so slowly in the race for the Republican nomination but a few things are already quite obvious.  First, there is no effort for some media to hide, disguise or claim balanced coverage because media objectivity has been thrown to the winds with a little over 8 months left in the campaign.

Not that it makes a lot of difference because the public long ago assumed media bias was a new facet of journalism in America.  Of course Fox News is the conservative standard but they are not necessarily Republican leaning as no one has done more to undermine efforts by Romney to pick up conservatives than the Fox personalities.

Sometimes it seems they are in cahoots with MSNBC and their parent NBC the way they keep implying Romney is struggling to get the backing of leading conservatives.  Back in the days of honest philosophical differences all the Republican candidates used to pledge to support whomever won the nomination at the convention.

That was how Reagan was so successful in capturing cross over voters from the Democrat and Independent ranks.  Now it seems the candidates put themselves above the party by threatening to withhold support for the eventual nominee, threatening a third party candidate, and even threatening to back someone new who might be seduced into entering the race at the last minute.

Loyalty to party seems to have become a lost principle.  Accommodation of all views from conservative to moderate to liberal also seems to be lost on our present flock of politicians.  Perhaps they have hopes of demanding a litmus test on proper conservative attitudes before pledging support, a narrow minded view that has failed miserably in the past.

It would seem rather obvious from the Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush years in the presidency that America has become far more moderate than conservative conservatives might like but reality is a powerful motivator to put philosophical loyalty in the middle where it belongs if one intends to serve all Americans.

Reagan proved you could be conservative and compassionate while the Bush family and Clinton proved being moderate was the only way to survive.  No doubt the nation needs a strong dose of fiscal conservatism to get out of the mess the liberals and conservatives have left us but eliminating budget deficits, reducing the national debt and fixing the entitlement mess also requires a lot of compassion to minimize the damage on people.

On the Democrat side of the media ledger very few media outlets show any desire to be anything but an extension of the Obama press office.  In the fifteen presidential elections I can remember I've never experienced anything like the media intimidation from the White House.  Not even Johnson or Nixon had the mainstream and cable media eating out of their hands like Barack Obama.

I suspect it is partly a response to the often heavy handed treatment of the media by Bush II insiders who never trusted the media and probably for good reason.  Backing Obama gave the media a chance to get even.

There is clearly a left leaning tendency on the part of most of the media which has come to the surface as the media lost all sense of balanced coverage and objective reporting.  And of course there is the fact Obama is Black, a Democrat and clearly wants big government, all draws to a liberal media.

It has been a long time since the liberals had a chance to influence the government gravy train, to dominate the news through reporters and anchors, and to control most of the cable news talk shows where they can sell books and book speeches.

Over the past few decades there were liberal stalwarts including The New York Times and Washington Post on the print side and PBS on television but the success of cable mouthpieces, first conservatives and then liberals, broke down the objective principles of journalism and opened the floodgates to news media stars interested more in making news than reporting it.

Rush Limbaugh is one of few media stars honest enough to admit that the role of talk shows is to entertain.  I suspect most of the public still thinks they report the news, fair and balanced news, choosing to ignore the advocacy and lack of objectivity of most of the media stars.

CNN has come a long ways from the days when Ted Turner ruled falling off the cliff of objectivity into the abyss of liberalism.  Some supposedly news shows like Soledad O'Brien and others make no attempt to hide their anti-conservative bias while the prime time news tries to downplay it but always stacks the panels of "experts" with liberals and Democrats, usually liberals as well.

Well there is still one place in CNN where you get balanced news coverage, that is the HLN (Headline News) Morning Express Show with the ever bubbly Robin Meade who has gradually taken over the morning news and entertainment slot and has the only six hour time slot, 6 am until 12 noon, on television.  She is also the only news personality who is part Native American.

MSNBC might as well be located in the Obama White House because even their so called Republican voices or pretenders defend Republican principles like France fought off the German invasion in World War II.  In other words, from Joe Scarborough's ego to former GOP National Chairman Michael Steele's outsider status they are far more concerned with protecting their own personal image than defending the Republicans.

NBC as a matter of principle still seems to project the GE party line which means you give homage to anyone who gets you $9 billion in tax free profits a year and Obama did just that.  Yet sometime NBC contributor Tom Brokaw and Meet the Press anchor David Gregory have both continued to avoid being caught up in the liberal stampede.

CNBC, the financial news network, is the exception to the rule in the NBC family as any blatant liberal bias would cost them their dominate position as the financial news source of America.  Of course their preoccupation with Warren Buffett, staunch billionaire Obama backer, who gets more CNBC air time than anyone on the globe, is an ongoing source of aggravation to conservatives but Buffett always has some common sense financial advice, not to mention he is the most successful investor on Wall Street over the past 50 years so he deserves to be heard no matter what his political beliefs.  No one can say he is not a successful capitalist.

CBS used to be the most liberal network but NBC might have stolen the crown away.  At ABC you at least have a balance between anchor Diane Sawyer from the Republican battlefields and George Stephanopoulos, a Clinton/Obama creation, although George has far more air time to promote the liberal cause with other ABC news programs.

Ironically, if you really want balanced news coverage of politics in America your only hope is to turn to BBC whose world news coverage dwarfs anything on American networks and whose political coverage of America may sometimes be bewildered by the bizarre political and campaign process, but always seem to give it objective coverage.

Now you still have one last choice when it comes to the mainstream and cable news coverage and that is to turn off the television.  You might even do it for health reasons.  It would certainly lower your blood pressure.  It would keep you from believing all those lies.  And it might give you a chance to find out what your kid is doing on the Internet social media.

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South Carolina Primary - Gingrich & Palin versus ABC & CNN

Winners and Losers

Well the final days of the South Carolina primary have been everything we can expect from a state that started the American Civil War.  There was so much smoke blowing over Fort Sumter in Charleston yesterday it may take weeks for the politicians and media to emerge from the fog.

There are times you have got to love the rough and tumble world of democracy American style and there are times you have got to love the Constitutional freedoms America has protected that leave the rest of the world in shock.

If you want a show come to America and watch the elections because there is not a country on Earth that does it like America.  Now, if you listen to the Main Street or Lame Street media reports you would draw two conclusions.  First the Republicans are self-destructing and second that Obama is going to be anointed to a second term.

Fortunately, the American people long ago knew better than to believe the media as long before politicians hit the bottom of the list of least respected occupations the media were right at the bottom, next to lawyers.

There is a reason no more than five million out of 310 million people watch a network news show every night.  There is a reason newspapers are dying, while network and cable television news continue to decline in viewers every year.

People don't trust the media any more than they trust politicians.  That may very well be the saving grace for our nation.

The media would have you believe the Republicans are destroying each other in South Carolina and there is no chance they can recover in the general election.  Did they forget that just four short years ago the same thing was happening to the Democrats?

In 2008 Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were brutally fighting it out in South Carolina as Obama accused former President Bill Clinton of fanning the flames of racism to win over votes for his wife.  Did the media today forget how nasty the 2008 Democratic show had been?

Well Obama did win the primary but he did not become the consensus leader until June 3, 2008, and Hillary did not withdraw until June 7.  That is over four months from now yet the media acts as if this Republican primary campaign should be over.  Nonsense!  It will be over when the people, not the media, decide.

So ABC News, along with the Washington Post, tries to trash the Romney and then Gingrich campaigns in the final days before the primary with much hyped exposés and CNN jumps on the band wagon when two days before the primary John King, CNN moderator, opened the last presidential debate by asking Gingrich if he told his ex-wife in 1999 that he wanted an "open" marriage so he could continue an affair.

When ABC and CNN take the lead and are blindly followed by most of the lame street media in allowing such babble to dominate the presidential campaign coverage there is a serious disconnect with reality.

Gingrich, being the gregarious opportunist that he is, promptly blasted the CNN host, the national media, and the liberal universe drawing two standing ovations before the debate had hardly begun.   It was a performance equal to anything the legendary populist Huey Long of Louisiana (Democrat) achieved on the national political stage 75 years ago.

Like him or not old Newt fanned the flames and rallied the people against the media and in the process, the media obsession with protecting President Obama may have backfired.  Just two days before the debate Sarah Palin came out of mothballs to help save Newt from the "elite" media with a "kind of" endorsement Sarah Palin style.

Just when the liberals were certain Palin had been blasted into oblivion by three years of media massacre of her and her reputation, Sarah comes to Newt's defense.  It is very likely when the dust settles after this primary Gingrich will turn around his imminent collapse according to the media and win the primary, and the liberal media will have awakened the Momma Bear of Alaska.

There you have it, the winners and losers, and the primary is not until tomorrow.  South Carolina gave us Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton tossing charges of racism four years ago.  Now they have given us an energized Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin.  It could be an interesting year.

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Watching the Media - CNN Struggles for Identity While MSNBC Embraces Left

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The only thing more fun than watching politicians sell out their principles in an effort to align themselves with the latest polls is watching the news networks sell out to the ratings game. With just three weeks left in the midterm campaign come Tuesday last minute adjustments are being made by the media but will they do any good at this late stage?

Take CNN for instance, the last cable network close to being fair and balanced until they moved left winger Rick Sanchez into an anchor role, then into prime time, and now have fired him. Did CNN move too far to the left? Of course, and when CNN wanted to introduce a new liberal program with co-hosts former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer with co-host Kathleen Parker, a show called Parker Spitzer (how creative) Sanchez had to go.

So far the television critics don't like the show nor the fast pace that means we get sound bites, not in depth discussion of issues. That is all we need on cable, more sound bites and less news. But then why CNN chose to revive the career of the discredited Spitzer who was force out as governor of New York because of a prostitute scandal, when there are surely others not involved in sex scandals in politics is hard to understand.

CNN seems to have temporarily lost their mind when it comes to programming. In their exclusive coverage of saving the miners trapped in Chile for 66 days they didn't even realize it was an American drilling team that was responsible for providing the drill and team that reached the miners two and a half months ahead of schedule. It wasn't until late in the coverage they finally realized it, even though the Americans were beside the President of Chile when he made the dramatic announcement.

Just today, Sunday, CNN host T J Holmes was doing story on a university study showing divorce rates for different women's occupations. Believe it or not two male reporters did the story, no females, and CNN has plenty of capable females. CNN's Robin Meade or Soledad O'Brien could have done a much better job.

Of course the whole story was stupid as the highest divorce rate was among dancers and choreographs, at around 33%. There was no explanation of what kind of dancers. Do ballet and pole dancers have the same divorce rate? And since 50% of all marriages wind up in divorce, it made no sense what so ever.

CNN is still stringing out the long overdue retirement of Larry King and the segments get weirder by the day.

Anderson Cooper is one of our favorite CNN reporters and he is now appearing on CBS 60 Minutes and other networks. Will he be the next to leave? They really don't need to lose any more good reporters.

Then there is Elizabeth Hasselbeck, the sole conservative on the liberal frenzy called The View (ABC) with Barbara Wawa, Whoppie Goldberg et all. She has won a new and coveted spot on Good Morning America, the ABC morning show, where she will finally get to finish a sentence without liberal interruption.

Finally, MSNBC has added yet another left wing show with host Lawrence O'Donnell who has been a political analyst for MSNBC for over 10 years. As he said, "I've had a part-time job at MSNBC for 14 years. Now that the network and I have gotten to know each other, I'm thrilled to be going full time." f course the quality of his new show can be seen by the fact his second show featured the resident idiot from Alaska, Levi Johnston, the high school dropout who got Bristol Palin pregnant. Seems O'Donnell could never get Sarah Palin on the show so he chose to go for the vulgar dimwit to try and hype his ratings. Now that was some intellectual presentation.

Entertainment is news in America...
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