The Media Is (Still) Lying To You
Unmasking the Narrative. Facts Crush Media’s Fake Stories
That corporate media is a cesspool of propaganda and outright falsehoods is at this point a tired and trite cliche. The overwhelming truth of the proposition makes most discussion of it simply banal.
I don’t like banal, so my writings have been less in reaction to corporate media reporting and more focused on developing a rational narrative of current events based on the best factual evidence available at the time. For the most part, I just don’t give a damn what corporate media has to say, and I don’t think you should either.
However, there are times when corporate media propaganda warrants discussion as propaganda. We need to recognize the false narratives and fake news dimensions prevalent in corporate media reporting if we are to avoid being misled by them.
We have had several glaring examples of this in the past week. Unsurprisingly, they all are revolving around President Trump and his Administration.
One notable false narrative has emerged surrounding Trump’s DC “takeover”, asserting that Donald Trump is cleaning up a mess he created with the COVID lockdowns of 2020.
Another almost predictable false narrative is that the allegations against Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook are Trumpian lawfare against political adversaries, that there is no reason to accuse Lisa Cook of anything.
There are two appropriate adjectives to apply to both of these narratives: hogwash and horse hockey.
These particular stories are useful as propaganda discussion items because there are specific facts and evidences which may be applied to both which flatly contradict each narrative. They are easily proven false simply by looking at what is known.
Contents
Donald Trump Did Not Order Any Lockdowns
John Tamny, editor of RealClearMarkets and presumably an “expert economist” (don’t slip on the dripping sarcasm), starts off his little op-ed misadventure about Trump’s use of federal law enforcement and National Guard troops in Washington DC with a thesis that simply ignores the historical record of the COVID Pandemic Panic.
Donald Trump did it. Did what? He panicked in 2020 over the coronavirus, and downtown D.C. has yet to recover.
Setting aside the hyperbole of President Trump “panicking” in 2020, Tamny disingenuously and artlessly conflates Federal and local government actions during the lockdowns, to push a narrative that simply has no bearing in reality.
The narrative that President Trump ordered the United States into lockdown is simply untrue. It is particularly untrue that President Trump played any role in lockdowns of DC businesses. We can know this because President Trump’s Executive Orders, as well as Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Executive Orders, are a matter of public record. We know exactly what was ordered by whom and when it was ordered.
On March 13, 2020, President Trump issued Presidential Proclamation 9994 declaring a “National Emergency Concerning the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak”
The spread of COVID-19 within our Nation’s communities threatens to strain our Nation’s healthcare systems. As of March 12, 2020, 1,645 people from 47 States have been infected with the virus that causes COVID-19. It is incumbent on hospitals and medical facilities throughout the country to assess their preparedness posture and be prepared to surge capacity and capability. Additional measures, however, are needed to successfully contain and combat the virus in the United States.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including sections 201 and 301 of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) and consistent with section 1135 of the Social Security Act (SSA), as amended (42 U.S.C. 1320b-5), do hereby find and proclaim that the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States constitutes a national emergency, beginning March 1, 2020.
We should note that then Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared a Public Health Emergency on January 31, 2020—but that declaration also did not contain any orders compelling any lockdowns anywhere.
As a result of confirmed cases of 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), on this date and after consultation with public health officials as necessary, I, Alex M. Azar II, Secretary of Health and Human Services, pursuant to the authority vested in me under section 319 of the Public Health Service Act, do hereby determine that a public health emergency exists and has existed since January 27, 2020, nationwide.
That was the entirety of Secretary Azar’s declaration.
In hindsight, Trump’s Proclamation and declaration of National Emergency was unwarranted. A close scrutiny of the available data at the time revealed there was something very wrong with how the COVID-19 “Pandemic” was being reported.
While the degree of propaganda that would ultimately inform the COVID Pandemic Panic Narrative was not fully apparent at that time, it was already clear that the reporting—the basis for the emergency declaration—was faulty.
No legacy media outlet has paused to review the WHO statistics and compare them to recorded reality. Instead, they either accept uncritically the statements by the WHO or make reference to the underlying Wu-McGoogan study. Indeed, the Wu-McGoogan study (or its underlying data sets from China) appears to be the sole source of the estimate that 20% of COVID-19 cases will be severe and require hospitalization.
Nor should this be seen as an effort to cast doubt on the integrity of Doctors Wu and McGoogan. They gathered a subset of case histories from fairly early in the pandemic for study. There should be no surprise to find the rates and spectra of the disease shift over time, as different populations are exposed to the disease, and as more nuanced and sophisticated care pathways are developed. They researched the data they had at the time. We have data since that time, and our understanding of the disease should shift and evolve as the data sets shift and evolve.
While a study is limited to its data set, the raison d'etre of all media is to report on the constantly changing facts of any event. We should not analyze today with yesterday's data, and we should not analyze tomorrow with today's data. Rather, we should strive to use the best and most current data every day.
In reporting and discussing COVID-19, the WHO, the CDC, and the legacy media all appear to be stuck on yesterday's data.
At a minimum, we can fairly say that President Trump acted unwisely with this Proclamation, and the best that can be said on his behalf is that he was horribly misled by his public health advisors (such as the execrable Anthony “The Science™” Fauci).
However, the plain text of Proclamation 9994 proves absolutely that no lockdowns were ordered.
Moreover, the Executive Orders that Donald Trump did issue immediately subsequent to the Proclamation addressed prioritization and access to medical resources, not lockdowns.
On March 18, 2020, President Trump issued Executive Order 13909: “Prioritizing and Allocating Health and Medical Resources to Respond to the Spread of COVID-19”
On March 23, 2020, President Trump issued Executive Order 13910: “Preventing Hoarding of Health and Medical Resources To Respond to the Spread of COVID-19”.
On March 27, 2020, President Trump issued Executive Order 13911: “Delegating Additional Authority Under the Defense Production Act With Respect to Health and Medical Resources To Respond to the Spread of COVID-19”
None of these orders contained directives for states or municipalities to close businesses, schools, and other institutions for so much as a day.
That did not happen.
What did happen is that Mayor Bowser declared a public health emergency before Donald Trump issued his Proclamation. On March 11, 2020—two days before President Trump issued his Proclamation of a National Emergency—Mayor Bowser declared a Public Health Emergency within Washington DC.
Today, Mayor Muriel Bowser declared both a state of emergency and a public health emergency, effective immediately. The DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA) will activate the District’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and Joint Information Center (JIC) to provide additional coordination for the District’s COVID-19 response.
Granted, Mayor Bowser referenced Secretary Azar’s Public Health Emergency declaration of January 31, but neither of the two Executive Orders (Mayor’s Order 2020-045 and Mayor’s Order 2020-046) issued by the Mayor’s Office on March 11 relied on either Presidential Executive Order or Federal Government directive. Instead, both orders relied on established local ordinances and regulations, as the declaratory paragraphs of each make clear:
Two weeks after Mayor Bowser issued the emergency declaration, on March 24, 2020, she issued Mayor’s Order 2020-053, instituting the DC lockdown.
Again, her citation of authority was not Presidential or even Federal directive, but local ordinance and regulation.
It was Mayor Bowser’s decision to institute a lockdown, not President Trump’s. She could have decided not to issue a lockdown order. As the CDC has noted in its discussion of COVID-19, some states and territories did not issue lockdown orders.
During March 1–May 31, 42 states and territories issued mandatory stay-at-home orders, affecting 2,355 (73%) of 3,233 U.S. counties (Figure 1). The first territorial order was issued by Puerto Rico (March 15), and the first state order by California (March 19). Eight jurisdictions issued only an advisory order or recommendation to stay home, and six did not issue any stay-at-home orders. Most jurisdictions issued multiple orders during the observation period, and coding varied among individual orders. The duration and termination of each order varied by jurisdiction. During the observation period, 22 jurisdictions transitioned from a mandatory order to an advisory order, 11 rescinded or allowed orders to expire without extending, and the order in one jurisdiction was ruled invalid by the state’s supreme court.§§ The first state to rescind or allow a stay-at-home order to expire was Alaska (April 24). Eight jurisdictions had mandatory orders applicable to at least some part of the population that extended beyond May 31.
Given all the hue and cry heard in the media about the imperatives of “resisting” Donald Trump even during his first term, one has to marvel how Democrat governors and mayors were not just willing but even eager to lean into Proclamation 9994 to shutter American businesses, churches, and schools in what can charitably be described as the mother of all over-reactions—one that was a proven failure even before it was tried here in the US.
President Trump is responsible for Operation Warp Speed and the pharmaceutical abomination of the mRNA COVID inoculations, which were an abysmal failure from the very start.
He has not acknowledged any wrongdoing in that, and that failure will forever taint his Presidential legacy, no matter what other good he may accomplish. All of the big lies told about the inoculations begin with Operation Warp Speed.
Yet we must only hold people accountable for their own sins, not the sins of others. The economic dislocations the lockdowns imposed carried their own health consequences wholly separate from COVID, a reality governors and mayors conveniently ignored at the time.
Still, it is the governors and mayors whom we must hold to account for the lockdown, not President Trump. His COVID sins do not extend to the lockdowns, and it is a blatant falsehood for John Tamny or anyone else to say that they do.
The documented facts of the lockdown prove John Tamny is spouting hogwash and horse hockey, and he should be derided then dismissed on that basis.
Lisa Cook Has Some Explaining To Do
When CNBC decided to report on the allegations of mortgage fraud swirling around Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, they opted to color their reporting with this bullet point at the top of the story (emphasis mine):
President Donald Trump responded to Pulte’s unsubstantiated accusation by writing on social media that Cook “must resign, now!!!”
According to CNBC, Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, was making an allegation against Lisa Cook without a shred of evidence—which is what “unsubstantiated” means, according to Merriam-Webster.
That framing is a problem for CNBC, because their own article goes on to provide the substantiation—namely the specifics of Bill Pulte’s charge.
Pulte’s central allegation is that Cook claimed two different properties as her primary residence at the same time.
“You cannot do that in America,” he said on CNBC.
The agency chief, who has aggressively backed Trump’s frequent attacks on the Fed and Powell, insisted that his actions were apolitical.
“There’s no funny business here,” Pulte said. “This is straightforward stuff, and if you commit mortgage fraud, especially in black and white, you will be prosecuted.”
In his criminal referral letter to the Department of Justice, which he posted on X, Pulte made specific factual references to documents Lisa Cook signed with respects to two properties she owns, one in Michigan and one in George, both of which she claimed as her “primary resident”.
Moreover, Pulte has posted excerpts of documents signed by Lisa Cook since becoming a Federal Reserve Governor that arguably contain false statements regarding one or both of the properties.
CNN, for its part, naturally dismissed Pulte’s allegations as “political”.
Pulte said his accusations aren’t political and that he would go after anyone suspected of committing mortgage fraud, whether they are Republican or Democrat. However, the Trump administration has focused on investigating public figures seen as adversaries of the president, such as New York Attorney General Letitia James and Sen. Adam Schiff of California.
However, the New York Times concedes the obvious: that falsely claiming an investment property as a primary residence on a mortgage loan application can lead to a charge of mortgage fraud.
Kathleen Engel, a mortgage finance and regulation expert at Suffolk University Law School, said a borrower who intentionally deceived lenders by falsely affirming a primary residence in order to receive a benefit like a lower interest rate could be charged with fraud. But she said Mr. Pulte’s agency had not produced much evidence to support that claim.
Do these documents by themselves constitute evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that Lisa Cook committed mortgage fraud? Ultimately, that is a question for a jury to decide, should the Department of Justice decide to prefer charges against her.
Would an investigation reveal further evidence of criminal misconduct by Lisa Cook? We won’t know that unless there is an indictment and a trial. It is entirely possible that the DoJ might decline to prosecute, lacking confidence in the sufficiency of the evidence.
However, it is simply not true that Pulte’s claims are unsubstantiated. Quite the contrary, they are well substantiated—enough so that Lisa Cook certainly needs to provide an explanation of the seemingly false statements she has made regarding the nature of her ownership of the two properties. False statements on financial disclosure forms arguably are a form of fraud under US law1.
Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully—
(1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact;
(2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or
(3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry;
shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 5 years or, if the offense involves international or domestic terrorism (as defined in section 2331), imprisoned not more than 8 years, or both. If the matter relates to an offense under chapter 109A, 109B, 110, or 117, or section 1591, then the term of imprisonment imposed under this section shall be not more than 8 years.
False statements on loan applications are also are a form of fraud under federal law2.
Did Lisa Cook simply make a clerical mistake in her loan applications and financial disclosure forms? She certainly should be afforded the opportunity to present that defense if that is what happened.
Is she exploiting a technicality of the law which allows her to make the “primary residence” claim about both properties? If so she would be well advise to make that explanation public sooner rather than later—if she has an absolute affirmative defense against charges of fraud it surely is in her best interest to make it.
If she does not or cannot offer up such an explanation, however, what are reasonable people supposed to conclude?
We know what the District Court for the Central District of California concluded in 2016 about someone lying about a property being their principal residence on a mortgage application—it was fraud:
According to the evidence at trial, in the summer of 2008, Muhammad applied for three loans so she could purchase condominium units in North Hollywood and Canoga Park. The total value of the loans was more than $1.1 million.
In each loan application and in two occupancy certifications, Muhammad falsely stated that each condo would be her primary residence, even though she never intended to live in any of the condos.
We do not need to decide here and now if Lisa Cook is guilty of fraud.
We do need to recognize that there is at least some substantial evidence that she may very well be guilty of fraud—enough evidence that Lisa Cook, being a Federal Reserve Governor, needs to explain herself publicly. If she should choose to avail herself of her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, then she should resign as Federal Reserve Governor, or be fired for cause.
If Lisa Cook can provide evidence which exonerates her, then she should be exonerated and we should state affirmatively that she is innocent of wrongdoing—if she provides evidence. Until she provides that evidence, we are left with the possibility that she is guilty of wrongdoing, and the reporting should reflect that.
Calling Pulte’s criminal referral and calls for Lisa Cook to be fired as Fed Governor as merely “political” are simply mendacious propaganda by the corporate media. The same adjectives apply to this narrative as to Trump being at fault for the DC lockdown in 2020: hogwash and horse hockey.
Dismiss The Narrative, Get The Facts
It is not possible to place too much importance on the facts, evidence, and data surrounding any topic. All narratives must stand or fall on the basis of their supporting evidences.
Any narrative which is contradicted by facts must yield to those facts. There is no second option.
Any narrative which is not supported by facts must be viewed with extreme skepticism and even suspicion. There is no second option.
Narratives can be wrong, and frequently are wrong. Narratives can seem to be supported by facts initially only to be contradicted by subsequent revelations. That happens fairly often when reporting on current events, as the available facts are forever a moving target under the best of circumstances.
The facts, however, are always the facts. They are either true or false—there is no third alternative. Where facts are vetted, verified, and true, they will triumph over every narrative, every time.
They should triumph. Only the facts qualify as reality. Facts, evidence, and data are the only rational basis for reaching any conclusion about anything. Any story which gets the facts wrong is flawed by definition. Any story which simply ignores the facts is propaganda by definition.
What we see in media propaganda (corporate and alternative), is that there are invariably publicly available facts which shred the narrative. With a little research anyone can ascertain which media outlet is lying and which media outlet is telling the truth.
Do not trust any media. Do not trust anyone or anything claiming to present “the truth”. Verify everything. Look at the evidence for yourself and decide for yourself who is truthful and who is not.
The facts are out there. They are the only things you should ever trust. Media narratives are the things you should never trust.
📡 "The corporate media is a cesspool....."
ALL FACTS MATTER ✔️ 🇺🇲 ⚖️🗽🧮
Simple truth, infotainment is sewage: 🎤 📺 📻 📰
Seriously, Peter, you should be awarded multiple prizes in journalism for being the most FACTUAL investigator and analyst in the country! You should be given big speaking fees at journalism schools and think tanks. You should be lauded as the man to consult by anyone seeking to learn how to factually investigate.
As the facts on declining consumption of corporate media show, ordinary citizens of the U.S. have become very skeptical of everything that’s being dished at them. This may prove to be the death of many anticipated applications of AI, because who will believe anything AI tells us? It will be the butt of comedians’ jokes - more garbage in, garbage out thrust at us as “the Truth”, ha, ha.
So here’s a new-career idea for you, Peter. With your high intelligence, tech skills, eloquence, analytical genius, plus other experience and skills, is there a way that you could ensure a higher degree of accuracy in AI? Sure, AI may tank because of its huge need for electricity and water, but sidestepping those issues, is there a way that you could team up with master algorithm-writers to prevent AI from being such GIGO that it is rendered unreliable? Maybe you’d like to brainstorm on that. You would be SO good at this!