The New York Times sounded a little giddy on the front page of its “Business” section April 21 with the headline “Obama Joins Fight to Curb Online Lies.” This spin strongly suggests Barack Obama never lies. He’s a valiant warrior against lies.
That came after a badly disguised press release at CNN.com on Obama “urgently throwing himself into the fight against disinformation.” As usual, they make it sound like a superhero has landed whenever Obama arrives on the scene.
Never mind PolitiFact giving Obama the “Lie of the Year” in 2013 for when he said, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it.” Never mind Obama’s baldfaced lies in 2012 that the Benghazi consulate attack wasn’t a terrorist thing; it was a protest of an Islamophobic YouTube video that got out of hand. As if the Islamic radicals brought grenade launchers to a “protest.”
This underlines why the liberal media should not be trusted in a “disinformation” fight. They have a frustrating tendency to put themselves on the side of “information” and conservatives on the side of “disinformation.” Don’t try to argue it’s more complicated than that. They’re not listening.
Times reporters Steven Lee Myers and Cecilia Kang offered a narrative that social media sites seemed like a force for good when they helped elect Obama, and then turned malignant as Trump ascended. Their story began with Obama “yukk(ing) it up” in 2011 with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
“As an apostle of the dangers of disinformation, Mr. Obama might be an imperfect messenger,” they wrote. He rode social media to victory, “but then, as president, did little to intervene when its darker side — propagating falsehoods, extremism, racism and violence — became apparent at home and abroad.” Obama rehashed “whether he had done enough to counter the information campaign ordered by Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, to tilt the 2016 election against Hillary Rodham Clinton.”
They don’t blame Clinton for losing. They blame Putin. Disinformation was suddenly “eroding democracy” just as the Democrats lost the White House.
Obama took his old friend Zuckerberg aside right after the 2016 election to warn “he needed to take the problem more seriously.” This is exactly how and when our liberal media finds the urgency to fight “disinformation.”
The Times touted an Obama keynote speech at a Stanford Cyber Policy Center event. When Obama spoke on this subject recently at the University of Chicago, no “independent fact-checker” checked the veracity of his information, like his revisionist claims about being tough on Russia as president. They’re not “independent,” and neither are the social media sites that use them to curb conservatives.
Nowhere in the Times article or in the CNN piece was there any mention of Hunter Biden’s laptop, which the liberal media and Big Tech rashly ruled was “disinformation” in the last weeks of the 2020 campaign. That story was squashed on the internet. On March 17, the Times admitted — deep in an article on page A-20 — that it’s authentic information. Even now, CNN can’t handle the truth. Reporter Paula Reid produced one story on March 30 (which aired several times) still saying the laptop was “purported to belong to Hunter Biden.”
So, the question for CNN and the New York Times: Can you admit now that the New York Post didn’t report “online lies” on Biden’s laptop? Can the media have any humility about the idea that sometimes conservative journalists can ferret out and verify information they don’t like? That if it’s not “disinformation” if it’s accurate, but may help Republicans? If not, they have no moral standing to prance around like heroes fighting “disinformation.”
Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Tim Graham and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
The PinocchiObama Lies that the Deranged Democrats and news media ignored
Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.
“US ground troops will not be sent into combat in this conflict with ISIL”
I didn’t withdraw the troops from Iraq.
There is not a smidgen of corruption at the IRS.
If you like your health care plan, you can keep it.
Obama said he had decimated Al-Qaeda and had them on the run.
The Benghazi attack and killing the ambassador was over a YouTube video.
ACA will “Lower health care premiums by $2,500”.
“I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits either now or in the future.”
I did not draw a Red Line.
Obama Says, He Didn’t Raise Taxes Once.
Obama Lies about Funded Abortions. Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, reports providing 327,653 abortions in 2013 and receiving $528 million in U.S. taxpayer funds.
Obama Lied about Taxes on those making Less than $250,000 will not see any form of tax increase
In Obama’s campaign, he promised to “eliminate entirely” income tax for seniors making less
than $50,000. Yet another blatant lie right to your face.
The only involvement I had with Acorn was doing some stuff with the justice department.
I will make Government Open and Transparent.
I will make it “Impossible” for Congressmen to slip in Pork Barrel Projects.
etc, etc.
You forget “HERE IS a red line for Syria..”
Famous democrat Elite Quotes, ” Barack H. Obama, Two Term President of The United States Said This About His Vice President, ” Never Underestimate Joe Biden’s Ability To Fuxk Things Up. ” One has To Wonder If It Wasn’t The Democrats Intentions “To Fuxk Things Up ,” If After Being Warned About Joe Biden By The Former President Obama , If Fuxking Things Up wasnT Their plans All Along. Hillary Clinton, ” At this Point, What Difference Does It Make Benghazi, “
Barack H. Obama Isn’t The One Who Should Call Attention To other Politicians Lies As He Was Less Than Forthcoming When he Plagiarized his Infamous Speech, ” Don’t Tell Me Words Don’t Matter, Or “You Can Keep Your Doctor, … As Another Poster Commented Here Before About ” Obama Health Care Plan. But Being A Communist, Barack H. Obama Didn’t ha e Any Trouble Lyong as that wS ” Second Nature To Him.
“Superhero”—okeeeeease!!! More like Super Villain.
“Fighting online lies.” He must be beating himself up. The Liar of all liars—the Duke of Disinformation is on a campaign to make it all better. Umm-Hmm.
LET’S GO OBAMA
Villian, MOST definitely.
Super, NOT likely.
Obama said to the American People , ” Did I ever Lie To You Before? ” With A Straight Face.
barry sotero crawl back into your turkish bath house .
Yup. He’s one of thousands but NUMBER ONE. SWAMP SCUM.
Superhero of what, the sewer?
He is trying to sow doubt before the full scale revelations of the Durham report hits.
So, let me get this straight (something B H Obama has difficulty with), the Official Association of Vacant Minded Obamatons in the Country are praising him for his–heh-brave stand-heh heh-against, hmph-heh heh heh-disinformation?
Well, ha ha ha, sorry. What I wanted to say-bbbbrrrfff hah hah ha ha ha!
Sorry sorry, give me a sec..ahhh hah hah hah ha haaaa…!
It’s just..hmph hah hah ha ha ha ha HAAAA..!
Okay, hmph, okay. Whew! Okay seriously I-ahh ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, ohmyGod, oh my sides, I need a drink.
Um, sorry, I’ll have to get back to you about this later…heh heh heh hee hee hee…