Shep Smith: Journalists are not the enemy of the people

@Brandon9000,

Brandon9000 wrote:

He has defined journalists who falsify and/or distort the truth as the enemies of the people, and he is right.

Well, if that's the interpretation you're going with, then Fox would certainly be number one on that list. But that's not what's happening. Singling out specific stations that report unflattering news while simultaneously praising specific opinion only sources is what trump is complaining about.

And he's wrong.

1 Reply

@revelette1,

revelette1 wrote:

Black Lives Matter started their movement because of the unfair justice they have received at the hands of police officers. White Supremist believe Whites are superior to other races. The two are not opposite sides of the same coin. Black Lives Matter do not believe they are superior to whites, they believe they have been treated unfairly by the justice system because they are black. White supremist on the other hand believe people of other races are inferior to whites. Their own beliefs judges them guilty of racism.

None of really knows what others believe or don't believe, though it appears you profess to somehow know the beliefs and inner motives of others. That is the essence of prejudice.

Some of the perceived mistreatment some blacks have received at the hands of police officers is entirely just and warranted: some is not. Many of the whites involved are protesting what they believe is the lax or absence of law enforcement they believe is demanded by Black activist Groups, and are concerned about the degrading law enforcement that results. Real examples of this can be found today in Chicago, Oakland and other cities. It is indeed a matter of concern among citizens, both Black and White, of both cities. Others on both sides call it racism. The truth is likely a mixture of both.

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@revelette1,

revelette1 wrote:

Our intelligence have concluded the Russians did use a nerve gas agent against those in Britain which is why the US has put new sanctions on Russia. Russia and in particular Putin has been against the West since the fall of the USSR. If a person wants the particulars after reading that straightforward article, they are free to study up on it. Our news people do not have to point out everyone's points of views in every given story. People are free to either believe the story as written or look elsewhere to verify facts.

There is plenty of news focusing on the bigger picture and they involve the individuals mentioned in the news article I put forward. Russia and in particular Putin wants the states and the power back that Russia lost after the fall the USSR. Trump for reasons we do not know, has been too generous in his praise and his handling of Russia. Luckily even those in own his administration are not.

If the CIA assassinates someone, do you immediately assume that the president was informed, let alone the author of the killing? I don't. I assume the CIA operates relatively autonomously and I assume the same about any Russian networks that procure assassinations.

Putin, like US presidents, represents a certain political leadership personality. Obama represented something different from GW Bush, who represented something different from Bill Clinton. I know little about Putin, but I have gathered that he is somewhat conservative and Christian and not supportive of sexual-liberal issues like LGBTQ rights, which is the reason I think he is hated/attacked by the left.

So when there is blaming of him in relation to high-profile assassinations, I don't immediately assume that it is anything more than a political attempt to correlate an atrocity with a political head of state because the atrocity was procured by agents affiliated with that state for whatever reason. Now you can get into why or why not a president or other head of state should be held accountable for atrocities that happen 'on their watch,' but that gets into tricky internal politics and part of those internal politics involve people who are trying to demonize their superiors for political reasons, so you shouldn't assume that all the subordinates in a system are all just minions doing their jobs in subordination to higher-ups. There are politics and power struggles going on within the ranks of organizations, and people are manipulating to achieve political goals.

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@georgeob1,

It really is not hard to know what either BLM believes or the organizer of today's White Civil rights protesters believe.

http://www.blacklifematters.org/home

Quote:

We stand against all forms of police brutality, exsessive fource and profiling. Here is a list of young people who have lost thier lives due to all of the above.

https://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Inside-Jason-Kessler-s-rise-in-white-nationalist-13148971.php

Quote:

During the hour-long interview last month, he unloaded a litany of hate-fueled grievances: The police in Charlottesville, he said, "screwed" him and other white nationalists last year. The media have turned him into "Damian, the son of Lucifer." White people are "up against a wall." Jews, he charged, "control the currency," and are "over-represented in Congress and the Supreme Court."

1 Reply

@livinglava,

I am not going to second guess what our intelligence and other nations intelligence have said unless there is clear reason to suspect them. And no I don't think the CIA would go around spreading nerve gas to citizens in other countries without our President's ok on it which I would sincerely hope would not happen. It was bad enough when the US used chemical weapons in war situations, we really committed war crimes.

1 Reply

@livinglava,

In this, I'm fairly sure you are right.

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@roger,

Right about what? You think our CIA goes around using nerve gas on citizens in other countries without our President knowing about it?

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@livinglava,

livinglava wrote:

Putin, like US presidents, represents a certain political leadership personality.

WTF are you talking about??? Putin is a ruthless DICTATOR. American and Russian governments are not even remotely comparable,

1 Reply

@revelette1,

I think there is a great deal done by governments without the knowledge of the head of state. Now, that head of state may very well be responsible for the culture in which those acts are committed, but the chief executive, even a good one, simply does not have the time to be aware of, and specifically approve of everything done by every agency.

1 Reply

@neptuneblue,

neptuneblue wrote:

livinglava wrote:
Putin, like US presidents, represents a certain political leadership personality.

WTF are you talking about??? Putin is a ruthless DICTATOR. American and Russian governments are not even remotely comparable,

Lots of people call the leaders they dislike dictators. GW Bush was compared to Hitler by his haters, as is Trump currently. I am amazed at how much strawmanning of leaders goes on, to the point that I don't believe anything until I understand exactly how the individual's authority is connected to other things that go on "on his or her watch."

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@roger,

The subject did not come in a general terms context, sure the president does not know every action the intelligence officers do. But it seems to me using a chemical nerve gas agent would fall under some kind of need to know basis for the President; considering it is against international law. The US passed a law in 1991 which required the US sanction Russia because of it's use of chemical weapon. So, no it really is ridiculous to think a rogue CIA agent would use a chemical weapon against someone anywhere at all without the President knowing about it and it being considered all OK.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/102nd-congress/house-bill/3409/summary/18

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@livinglava,

I am speechless.

Rare, but it happens.

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@livinglava,

Putin kills dissenters in his own country, jails reporters and those critical of him. He is a dictator who abuses his own citizens.

1 Reply

@neptuneblue,

I think we are experiencing a rush of Russia bots these last few days or so. Possible anyway.

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@revelette1,

revelette1 wrote:

I am not going to second guess what our intelligence and other nations intelligence have said unless there is clear reason to suspect them. And no I don't think the CIA would go around spreading nerve gas to citizens in other countries without our President's ok on it which I would sincerely hope would not happen. It was bad enough when the US used chemical weapons in war situations, we really committed war crimes.

'We' didn't commit war crimes. The people who ordered the crimes committed them along with the people who carried out the orders. You can't assume that the president is the author of everything that goes on, let alone the people. The fact is that people manipulate and do so covertly and the people who specialize in covering their tracks and creating decoys have more skills in such cloak and dagger antics than you or I as lay people have in seeing what's really going on behind the facades.

1 Reply

@livinglava,

Well, considering I consider my a US citizen, and usually proud to be so, when I said "we" I meant the US.

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If you watch Shep Smith's Fox News show at 3 p.m. ET
then watch Sean Hannity's Fox News show at 9 p.m. ET,
you're often witnessing two different realities.
Smith regularly debunks Hannity's pro-Trump propaganda and lies.
Here are a few examples.

Published on Aug 2, 2018

0 Replies

@revelette1,

revelette1 wrote:

Putin kills dissenters in his own country, jails reporters and those critical of him. He is a dictator who abuses his own citizens.

You can't assume who are the bad guys and who are the good guys in a civil war. Look at the situation with Duterte vs. the drug dealers in that drug war. People take sides against him because he is the state leader so he is expected to arrest and try people before ordering executions, but do you think the drug cartels are respecting human rights and following due process?

Obviously organized crime are the bad guys and those who are trying to stop it, like Duterte, are the good guys, but their comes a point in a war where both sides are stooping to low tactics because if they didn't the other side would and they would get the upper hand by doing so. As someone who doesn't want to stoop in this way, you end up choosing between surrendering and being dominated by the bad guys or getting sucked into their race to the bottom.

I don't know whether Putin is the leader of the bad guys in Russia or the resistance to the bad guys, who is standing up to them in a way that seems overly harsh to outsiders. I won't assume that he's good or bad, but what I will assume is that it is entirely possible that there are bad guys outside of government who subvert government to gain ground for evil against good. As such, it is entirely possible that Putin is on the side of good and he is using low tactics because he doesn't know any other way; but of course now I'm assuming that he is even aware of these atrocities that you are claiming about him; and I am also assuming that you are talking about something real and not some kind of fake news designed to propagate opposition to Putin for the sake of supporting his enemies' political agendas.

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@revelette1,

revelette1 wrote:

Well, considering I consider my a US citizen, and usually proud to be so, when I said "we" I meant the US.

There is a lot of loose identification between national identities, governments, the people, the leaders, the culture, etc. Reality is more complex. The fact that you can use the name, "US," to stand in for all these different things doesn't mean they are interchangeable. E.g. the US stands for liberty, but many people in the US foresake and fail at liberty, let alone support it. Likewise, many US citizens don't support the president and much of what goes on by US people is not known to or supported by the president or others in the government. Don't assume rhetoric = reality.

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@neptuneblue,

neptuneblue wrote:

I am speechless.

Rare, but it happens.

Do you question the information you read and assume that it's true only tentatively, or do you believe it all as if there are no political-economic interests controlling information flows to the public? Do you not realize there are political conflicts that lead people to propagate certain points of view and demonize those who obstruct their political agendas?

1 Reply

Shep Smith: Journalists are not the enemy of the people

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