WAPO 2

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SEE THREE 3/22</font></div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7/18</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">html&nbsp;</font><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Splinter</span></div><div>bak 1 22</div><div>
</div><div>correction // moderation fact check ~ alt fact Earth2
<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">me not thee voter suppr</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/washington-post-editorial-mark-meadows/">https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/washington-post-editorial-mark-meadows/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">apparently not Joe and Greta's fault?!:</font></div><div>
</div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx twt</font></font></font></font></div><div>These 5 ‘deeply malevolent’ things that Trump did to hurt Ukraine must not be forgotten: journalist</div><div>
</div><div>Alex Henderson March 01, 2022</div><div>&nbsp; &nbsp;</div><div><b>With Ukraine now being invaded by Russian troops on orders from President Vladimir Putin, MAGA messaging on the crisis has ranged from praising Putin to blaming President Joe Biden for the crisis. One of the most ludicrous MAGA talking points is that Putin wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine if Trump were still president.&nbsp;</b>But liberal&nbsp;<b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Washington Post opinion writer Greg Sargent</span>, </b>in a scathing column/listicle published on March 1, stresses that the things Trump did to hurt Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky when he was president must not be forgotten.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“With the Russian invasion of Ukraine getting more horrific,” Sargent writes, “Donald Trump and his allies are frantically erasing the truth about Trump’s relations with Ukraine. Trump absurdly claims that as president, he stood strong behind Ukraine and NATO, even as his spinners comically downplay his corrupt and deeply malevolent betrayal of our ally.”</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Sargent continues, “The obvious rejoinder to this spin is that Trump got impeached for withholding military aid to strong-arm Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into manufacturing propaganda to help Trump’s reelection</b>. This came even as Zelensky pleaded for help against Russian aggression, which the world is now witnessing unfold in all its horror.”</div><div>
</div><div><b>The columnist notes that when Trump was president, he repeatedly “aligned our interests with those of Russian President Vladimir Putin and against those of Ukraine, NATO and the West</b>.” And Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman agrees. Vindman, who testified during House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry against Trump in November 2019, told Sargent, “Trump acted against U.S. interests with the consequence of aiding Russian interests.”</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Sargent goes on to list and describe five examples of Trump doing things to hurt Ukraine. Trump, Sargent recalls: (1) “spread propaganda about Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election,” (2) “ousted the well-regarded U.S. ambassador to Ukraine,” Marie Yovanovitch, (3) “froze military assistance to Ukraine,” (4) “withheld a White House meeting from Zelensky,” and (5) “turned Ukraine policy over to (Rudy) Giuliani.”</span></div><div>
</div><div>“All this has important forward-looking implications, now that Trump may run for president again,” Sargent explains. “As president in 2025, he’d be stewarding relations with Russia, Ukraine and NATO, but after this war has unfolded. Right now, we’re seeing extraordinary unity among the United States and its allies as it imposes harsh sanctions on Russia and otherwise tries to dissuade Putin’s invasion. Trump would almost surely rupture that.”</div><div>
</div><div>Vindman, during his interview with Sargent, warned that it will be great for Putin if Trump becomes president again.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>“With Trump as president in 2025,” Vindman told Sargent, “we’re quite likely looking at a world in which Russia may have achieved its objectives and folded Ukraine back into its sphere of influence.”</b></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3 22</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fact checker shreds Trump Jr.'s claim about 6 million military hours being spent promoting the 'woke' agenda</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>Donald Trump, Jr. speaking at the&nbsp;<b>2019 Teen Student Action Summit, hosted by Turning Point USA</b>&nbsp;at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, D.C., Gage Skidmore</div><div>Meaghan Ellis March 03, 2022</div><div>&nbsp; &nbsp;</div><div><b>A fact-checker is pushing back against Don Trump Jr.'s latest claim suggesting the military's last 6 million hours have placed an emphasis on the so-called "woke" agenda.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The&nbsp;<b>Washington Pos</b>t's Glenn Kessler</span> highlighted remarks made by former President Donald Trump's son when he appeared at the<b>&nbsp;Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Fla. At one point during his speech, he criticized the U.S. military.</b></div><div>
</div><div>“Our generals, the great woke leaders of our military that spent 6 million man-hours training our troops about wokeness — not fighting, not killing bad guys," Trump Jr., said on February 27. "They wanted to learn about White rage, a term none of us had heard of prior to him [Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff] testifying, right?”</div><div>[Donald Trump Jr. Bashes Biden Over Ukraine Crisis In Fiery CPAC 2022 Remarks | Full Speech</div><div>youtu.be]</div><div>
</div><div>Kessler pushed back with the facts about the military's hours spent. He noted that Trump Jr.'s remarks would only make sense to conservatives who rely on information from far-right influential platforms like Fox News and Newsmax. He went on to explain why.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">After tracking down the six million figure, Kessler acknowledged that it derives from a letter written by Milley that was addressed to Sen. James M. Inhofe (Okla.), who is a high-ranking Republican official serving on the Senate Armed Services Committee. At the time, Inhofe had requested to know how much time had been dedicated to three key items as under the U.S. Department of Justice requirements. Those items, according to Kessler, are "an extremism 'stand-down' related to the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol, a climate change plan and a new diversity, equity and inclusion training program."</span></div><div>
</div><div>Although Trump Jr. claimed the military had spent a substantial amount of its time on the woke agenda,<b>&nbsp;Kessler pointed out that they actually placed an emphasis on mitigating extremism.</b></div><div>
</div><div>"The biggest chunk of time was devoted to the extremism stand-down — nearly 5.4 million hours," Kessler explained. "Since nearly 2.5 million members of the military participated, that means abou<b>t two hours per person, which Milley noted is “comparable to other Joint Force periodic training requirements</b>.” The climate change plan (1,059 hours) and diversity training (529,711 hours) brought the total up to 5.9 million hours. But you can see that more than 90 percent of the total related to the extremism course."</div><div>
</div><div>Kessler also highlighted Trump Jr.'s attempt to bend words.</div><div>
</div><div>"Notice the sneaky trick that Trump Jr. plays here," he wrote.</div><div>The vast majority of the “6 million man-hours” and the “White rage” comment concerned the attack on the Capitol by supporters of his father — an attack that the former president has defended and even seemed to celebrate. But his son does not make that clear. Instead, he claims that this is all about a “woke agenda” imposed by the Biden administration. To some extent that might be a matter of opinion, but it seems like a real stretch."</div><div>
</div><div><b>He concluded saying that although the 6 figure number is an actual estimate of real-time hours, "there is no evidence that this relatively minor course detracted from any military training — and Trump Jr. entirely mischaracterizes what the training was for."</b></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/01/ron-desantis-2656462349/">https://www.alternet.org/2022/01/ron-desantis-2656462349/</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">wapo crit him</font></p><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">amplify: paper cites congrats from trump:</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">tenn star</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...[no grafic]</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“Thank you and congratulations to Laura Baigert of the Georgia Star News on the incredible reporting you have done. Keep going! The scam is all unraveling fast!” President Trump&nbsp;<a href="https://saveamerica.nucleusemail.com/amplify/v/eZAbmh6YWe?s=4f577698-27df-4701-9b97-65a67addea8a" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: 0px 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">said</a>&nbsp;of her reporting.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Recently, Baigert has been investigating the process of the November 2020 election throughout the state of Georgia. She has uncovered several concerning actions relating the handling of absentee ballots, specifically in Fulton County — a population center of Georgia.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to her&nbsp;<a href="https://georgiastarnews.com/2021/05/18/six-months-after-the-2020-election-fulton-county-has-failed-to-produce-chain-of-custody-documents-for-18901-absentee-ballots-placed-in-drop-boxes/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">reporting</a>, several months after the November 2020 election and after<b>&nbsp;failing on two occasions to produce a complete chain of custody documents for absentee ballot drop boxes, the Fulton County</b>&nbsp;Registration and an Elections official said that they “needed more time” to produce the documents.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Due to her efforts in uncovering the questionable actions, a Fulton County election official&nbsp;<a href="https://georgiastarnews.com/2021/06/14/fulton-county-election-official-admits-chain-of-custody-documents-missing-for-2020-absentee-ballots-deposited-in-drop-boxes/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: 0px 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">told</a>&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Star News</em></span>&nbsp;that “a few forms are missing” and that “some procedural paperwork may have been misplaced.”</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">However, her&nbsp;<a href="https://georgiastarnews.com/2021/06/14/fulton-county-election-official-admits-chain-of-custody-documents-missing-for-2020-absentee-ballots-deposited-in-drop-boxes/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">analysis</a>&nbsp;demonstrated that drop box ballot transfer forms for absentee ballots deposited in drop boxes provided by Fulton County in response to an&nbsp;<b>Open Records Request</b>&nbsp;[by?] showed that 385 transfer forms out of an estimated 1,565 transfer forms Fulton County said should have been provided are missing – a number that is significantly greater than “a few” by any objective standard.&nbsp;</span>According to a spreadsheet provided by Fulton County, 18,901 absentee ballots that should have been tracked in these 385 missing forms now have no chain of custody documentation.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Many officials have&nbsp;<a href="https://georgiastarnews.com/2021/05/25/state-sen-burt-jones-says-fulton-county-election-audit-may-require-georgia-bureau-of-investigation-involvement/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: 0px 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">demonstrated concerns</a>&nbsp;over the security of the election in Georgia and other states.&nbsp;<b>President Trump has repeatedly&nbsp;<a href="https://georgiastarnews.com/2021/06/02/trump-criticizes-ducey-for-veto-of-critical-race-theory-and-election-security-bills/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: 0px 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">encouraged</a>&nbsp;Republicans to enhance election security measures.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">The concerns across the state inspired officials in Georgia to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/state-election-voting-security-laws-georgia" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">pass</a>&nbsp;new election laws, meant to strengthen the integrity of the election process.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;">
</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://georgiastarnews.com/author/cmoran/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: 0px 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">Cooper Moran</a>&nbsp;is a reporter for the Star News Network. Follow Cooper on&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/cooper_moran" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: 0px 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">Twitter</a>. Email tips to&nbsp;cooperreports@gmail.com</font></span></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/22/trumps-baseless-claim-about-ballot-drop-boxes-fulton-county-ga/">
</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/22/trumps-baseless-claim-about-ballot-drop-boxes-fulton-county-ga/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/22/trumps-baseless-claim-about-ballot-drop-boxes-fulton-county-ga/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">debunk fact check 4 pinoccios:</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div>wapo</div><div>
</div><div>By&nbsp;</div><div>Salvador Rizzo</div><div>Reporter</div><div>June 22, 2021 at 12:00 a.m. PDT</div><div>
</div><div>“Thank you and congratulations to Laura Baigert of the Georgia Star News on the incredible reporting you have done. Keep going! The scam is all unraveling fast.”</div><div>
</div><div>— Former president Donald Trump, in a statement, June 17</div><div>
</div><div>False and misleading claims that cast doubt on Georgia’s 2020 election results continue to pop up seven months after the vote, and Trump keeps promoting them.</div><div>
</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 521 R Reich</font></div><div>
</div><div><div style="font-size: small;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At the risk of being the skunk at the picnic, I feel compelled to warn you that if we forget and move on from the tragedies of this past year, we're setting ourselves on a dangerous path. Of course I understand the desire to forget all the unpleasantness and start a new chapter. But if we do, we're inviting greater tragedies in the future.
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Let me remind you: Donald Trump lied about the results of the last election. And then – you remember, don't you? – he tried to overturn the results.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump twisted the arms of state election officials. He held a rally to stop Congress from certifying the election, followed by the violent attack on the Capitol. Five people died. Senators and representatives could have been slaughtered.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Several Republican members of Congress encouraged the attempted coup by joining him in the big lie and refusing to certify the election — even after the mob desecrated the halls of our democracy.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This was in January of this year, yet we seem to be doing everything we can to blot it out of our memory. Meanwhile, those responsible for instigating the attack haven't been held accountable in any respect — including by the media.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Washington Post hosted a live video chat with Missouri Republican senator Josh Hawley, a ringleader in the attempt to overturn the results of the election. Hawley had even made a fist-pump gesture toward the mob at the Capitol before the attack.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But the Post billed the interview as being about Hawley's new book on big tech. It even posted a biography of Hawley that made no mention of Hawley's sedition,&nbsp;</b>referring instead to his supposed reputation "for taking on the big and the powerful to protect Missouri workers" and as "a fierce defender of the Constitution."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>CBS This Morning interviewed Florida Republican Rick Scott, another senator who tried to overturn the election by not certifying the results.</b>&nbsp;But there was no mention of his sedition, either. The CBS interviewer confined his questions to Biden's spending plans, which Scott unsurprisingly opposed.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Senators Ted Cruz and Ron Johnson and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy also repeatedly appear on major news programs without being questioned about their attempts to undo the results of the election, or their continued promotion of Trump's lies.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The media is supposed to serve as a crucial check on those in power. But in its breathless desire to cover the "news" it is failing to remind us of our recent past.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The consequences of this failure are dire.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump's big lie that the 2020 election was stolen, and that President Biden is not legitimate, is not disappearing. A majority of Republican voters believe him.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>That big lie is being used by Republican state legislatures to justify an all-out assault on the right to vote.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hours after Florida enacted new voting restrictions, Texas's Republican-led legislature pushed ahead with its own bill that would make it one of the hardest states in which to cast a ballot.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Republican-controlled Arizona Senate launched a private recount of the 2020 presidential election results in Maricopa County – farming out 2.1 million ballots to GOP partisans with no experience in ballot counting or election monitoring. At least one person involved in the recount participated in the Capitol attack.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Republican Party even purged one of its leaders, Wyoming representative Liz Cheney, for telling the truth about the election.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, Republican state legislatures are muscling their way into election administration, as they attempt to dislodge or bully local election officials who have always run our voting systems.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump's big lie will continue to flourish unless the lawmakers who went along with it and have failed to renounce it face real consequences.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That means no book promotions, no cushy interviews, no guest op-eds in the Sunday paper.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What possible excuse is there for booking them if they have not publicly retracted their election lies? If they must appear, they should be asked if they continue to deny the election results and precisely why.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It also means a thorough independent 9-11 type inquiry into what happened, whether members of Congress were involved, how Donald Trump and others were involved.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Republican leaders must not duck this. History is watching.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They must be held accountable to the truth. Otherwise the trauma of 2020 will return — perhaps in even more terrifying form.</font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">julie h fair&nbsp;</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">an 121</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>the media seem to have finally found the line they won't abide crossing.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">&nbsp;After&nbsp;<a href="https://fair.org/home/nyt-reviewing-trumps-100-days-shows-folly-of-both-sides-journalism/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">both sides–ing</a>&nbsp;the political situation for four years of Donald Trump, the storming of the Capitol by an armed rebellion incited by Trump himself has brought out swift and strong words&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;</b>[wapo op ed pix</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...always bear the stigma of having contributed to the day's shameful events."</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Trump Caused the Assault on the Capitol. He Must Be Removed," declared the Washington Post editorial board (<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/remove-trump-incitement-sedition-25th-amendment/2021/01/06/b22c6ad4-506d-11eb-b96e-0e54447b23a1_story.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">1/6/21</a>). "Responsibility for this act of sedition lies squarely with the president, who has shown that his continued tenure in office poses a grave threat to US democracy," they wrote. "He should be removed." They continued:</font></p><blockquote style="margin: 1em 40px 1em -5px; border-left: 4px solid rgb(11, 13, 101); line-height: 32px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; width: 602.543px; background: rgb(245, 245, 245);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The president is unfit to remain in office for the next 14 days. Every second he retains the vast powers of the presidency is a threat to public order and national security. Vice President Pence, who had to be whisked off the Senate floor for his own protection, should immediately gather the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment, declaring that Mr. Trump is "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office."
</font></blockquote><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Post deplored GOP lawmakers like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley who continued to press their baseless attempt to overturn the election, and praised Mitch McConnell, who "to his lasting credit" did not join them, even if, as they noted, "almost all" GOP members "bear some blame for what occurred on Wednesday." The Republicans, the paper wrote, have an "overriding responsibility to the nation: stopping Mr. Trump and restoring faith in democracy."</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>It's a surprisingly forceful position. At the same time, imagine if the paper—and the rest of the establishment media—had taken the GOP's&nbsp;<a href="https://fair.org/home/journalists-need-to-be-clear-about-a-clear-threat-to-democracy/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">threat to democracy</a>&nbsp;seriously before it reached the point of the president inciting an armed insurrection on Capitol Hill.&nbsp;</b>Yesterday's events were the logical outcome of years of the GOP and Trump casting aside institutional rules and norms one by one with increasing boldness, as the press corps described this increasingly authoritarian behavior as "us[ing] all of the levers of his power" (FAIR.org,&nbsp;<a href="https://fair.org/home/democracy-dies-in-the-light/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">10/15/20</a>), and years of giving Trump and his allies space to make their bogus claims of election fraud (FAIR.org,&nbsp;<a href="https://fair.org/home/journalists-need-to-be-clear-about-a-clear-threat-to-democracy/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">9/15/20</a>). The media's long history of both sides–ing the issue of purported election fraud (Extra!,&nbsp;<a href="https://fair.org/extra/voter-fraud-claims-unchecked-by-media/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">11–12/08</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://fair.org/extra/actual-suppression-vs-imaginary-fraud/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">10/12</a>; CounterSpin,&nbsp;<a href="https://fair.org/home/will-every-eligible-voter-be-able-to-cast-a-ballot/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">10/21/16</a>) paved the way for Trump's mythology that has seduced a breathtakingly—and dangerously—<a href="https://www.courant.com/politics/hc-pol-q-poll-republicans-believe-fraud-20201210-pcie3uqqvrhyvnt7geohhsyepe-story.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">large proportion</a>&nbsp;of the public.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Imagine if corporate media didn't praise McConnell, Lindsey Graham or any other Republicans who propped up Trump's dangerous lies for so long, for finally turning on him.</b>&nbsp;Do they really believe we could have gotten to this point if McConnell and the rest of the party hadn't gone along with Trump's dangerously escalating lies–not just for the last several weeks, but for the last four years? If you keep your foot on the gas as the car speeds toward a cliff, but jump out a few seconds before you reach the edge, do you really deserve "lasting credit" for that?</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The real test of corporate media will be not whether they are able to forcefully condemn a president's seditious acts, but whether they go back to business as usual after Trump is gone, pretending that the GOP, a disturbing number of whose members in Congress still pushed to overturn the election after the armed insurrection, is a democratic party that can be counted on to restore faith in democracy</span>. [pix op ed]</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">new York Times (1/5/20): "More than 150 Republican lawmakers have signed on to reject the votes of tens of millions of Americans."</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Times editorial board, while silent so far after the events of yesterday, did publish a fairly benign opinion the day before ("Trump Still Says He Won. What Happens Next?"—<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/05/opinion/trump-call-georgia.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">1/5/20</a>), whose optimism clearly didn't take seriously the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-trump-rally-january-6-protests/2020/12/22/1c94ab7a-447a-11eb-a277-49a6d1f9dff1_story.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">extensive planning</a>&nbsp;underway in broad daylight on right-wing websites:&nbsp;</span>"The Republican effort to derail Congress's electoral vote count on Wednesday will fail, and President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn in at noon on January 20, as the Constitution commands."</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The Times could only muster the courage to say that "there is a strong argument" for impeachment (linking to an op-ed they published on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/04/opinion/trump-georgia-impeach.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">January 4</a>) without actually making that argument themselves;&nbsp;</b>the piece concluded by praising Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for resisting Trump's corrupt attempts at overturning the election results, and lamenting, "If only that weren't extraordinary in the Republican Party today."</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">What's missing so far is a mea culpa from the media for its own role in&nbsp;<a href="https://fair.org/home/tv-pundits-eager-to-make-trump-the-new-normal/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">normalizing</a>&nbsp;the GOP's long-term efforts to drag this country toward authoritarian rule—and their cynical enjoyment of the ratings bonanza provided by the enthralling spectacle of Trump's assault on democracy&nbsp;</span>(FAIR.org,&nbsp;<a href="https://fair.org/home/the-trump-campaign-bad-for-america-but-good-for-cbs/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">3/1/16</a>). Instead, we have the editor of Columbia Journalism Review (<a href="https://www.cjr.org/covering_the_election/trump-biden-polls-2020-press-failures.php" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">11/4/20</a>) castigating the press for spending too much time in the past four years on Trump's "infinite faults," and not enough trying to understand Trump supporters (FAIR.org,&nbsp;<a href="https://fair.org/home/drawing-all-the-wrong-lessons-from-medias-election-2020-failures/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">11/16/20</a>).</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kudos to the Washington Post for finally calling for a political reckoning. Now it's time for you to call for a media reckoning.</font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In March, a report by the Climate Investigations Center tallied&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">$1.4 billion worth of public relations, advertising, and communications contracts</span>&nbsp;signed by energy and business trade associations from 2008 to 2017.&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">One organization, the American Petroleum Institute (API), accounted for nearly half of that sum.</span></b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Evolution of Fossil Fuel Messaging — and Climate Science Denial</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Amid the investigations into their communications on climate change, many fossil fuel companies have been slowly re-tooling their messaging.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Some have acknowledged a need to transition away from fossil fuels — but at what critics respond would be a very slow pace.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Others have continued to push natural gas as a climate-friendly fossil fuel, despite the industry’s severe climate-changing methane problems.&nbsp;<b>API,&nbsp;</b>for example, has<b>&nbsp;placed ads<i>&nbsp;</i></b>claiming natural gas can “help meet the growing global demand for sustainable energy”</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">&nbsp;under the <b>Washington Post’s “branded content platform,</b>”</span>&nbsp;as The Intercept’s Sharon Lerner reported in April.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Other campaigns ditch mention of climate change and pollution all together, instead focusing on the benefits of products made from fossil fuels.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>During the Super Bowl in 2017, the American Petroleum Institute released an ad campaign called Power Past Impossible,</b>&nbsp;touting the many uses of oil and natural gas and highlighting how dependent modern life is on the byproducts of these fossil fuels.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Oil majors are projecting themselves as key players in the energy transition while lobbying to delay, weaken, or oppose meaningful climate policy,” Edward Collins of the UK-based think tank InfluenceMap said in a March statement accompanying a report he authored on public relations campaigns by oil and gas giants. “They advocate gradual implementation of market-based and technological climate solutions, but the latest [United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] report makes clear that urgent policy action and limitations on fossil fuel use are needed to avoid dangerous climate change.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The shift doesn’t spell the end of climate science denial — DeSmog’s database of individuals and organizations that seek to cast doubt on climate science or oppose action to prevent some of the worst effects of warming the world includes roughly 225 organizations — and that list continues to grow.</b></font></div></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/new-report-shows-how-trump-businesses-took-money-from-the-government-even-while-they-closed-down/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/new-report-shows-how-trump-businesses-took-money-from-the-government-even-while-they-closed-down/</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">when Donald Trump was running for president in 2016, he insisted that if he won the election, there would be a strict separation between the federal government and his business interests — that he would be “completely isolating” himself from his businesses.&nbsp;<b>But according to Washington Post reporters David A. Fahrenthold and Josh Dawsey, the president’s high-end properties have “charged the U.S. government more than&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-spending-bedminster/2020/09/17/9e11e1c2-f6a0-11ea-be57-d00bb9bc632d_story.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">$1.1 million in private transactions</a>&nbsp;since Trump took office” in January 2017.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Documents showing $1.1 million in charges, Fahrenthold and Dawsey report in the Post, were released by the U.S. Secret Service after the Post filed a public-records lawsuit. Those documents included receipts and invoices from Trump’s businesses, and the Post reporters note that “$188,000 in previously unknown charges” increases the Post’s “running total of payments to Trump’s properties related to the presence of Secret Service agents.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>One of those businesses is the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey,</b>&nbsp;which “charged the Secret Service more than $21,800 to rent a cottage and other rooms” while it was closed to the public because of the coronavirus pandemic. President Trump, according to Fahrenthold and Dawsey, did not visit his Bedminster property while it was “closed and otherwise off limits to guests,” but his daughter, White House Senior Adviser Ivanka Trump, reportedly did.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fahrenthold and Dawsey explain, “The family visited the club in April to celebrate Passover, a period that overlaps with several of the largest Secret Service charges. At the time, both the District of Columbia — where Ivanka Trump lives — and New Jersey had imposed ‘stay-at-home’ orders, telling residents to avoid travel except under limited circumstances." t</font><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">he Post reporters, however, note that the Secret Service does not appear to have violated New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s stay-at-home order, which employees of the federal government were exempt from.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of the government watchdog group Public Citizen, finds it “appalling” that Trump’s businesses are profiting at the expense of taxpayers — especially in light of the toll that the coronavirus pandemic has taken on state budgets.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gilbert told the Post, “The waste inherent in this is appalling…. They’re nickel-and-diming the American people at a moment when every penny counts.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Fahrenthold/Dawsey article published on Thursday isn’t the first time the Post has reported on the Bedminster business making money from taxpayers, but the Post reporters point out that “the new documents show that the rentals lasted much longer than previously known. Instead of lasting only for the summer months, when Trump usually visited, the rentals stretched from May to the end of October, the new documents show.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to a former Trump official, the Secret Service chose to rent out rooms for six months at a time because the president did not announce his travel schedule far in advance. That source, presumably interviewed on condition of anonymity, told the Post, “We always had space reserved at Bedminster weeks before the president arrived, just in case. If he came in the Oval on, let’s say, on a Wednesday, and said, ‘I want to go this weekend,’ you have to be ready.”</font></p></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">to be fair, WH sez will colect and pt out inaccuracies, which is SOP fair, but they haven't yet?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/white-house-threatens-journalist-with-a-dossier-over-report-exposing-trumps-self-dealing/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/white-house-threatens-journalist-with-a-dossier-over-report-exposing-trumps-self-dealing/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx twt</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">white House threatens journalist with a ‘dossier’ over report exposing Trump’s self-dealing</font></div><div>
</div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Alex Henderson August 27, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">During his 2016 campaign, Donald Trump promised that he would “completely isolate” himself from the Trump Organization if elected president. But the Washington Post and other media outlets have done a great deal of reporting on the many ways in which Trump’s properties — from Mar-a-Lago in South Florida to his hotels and golf resorts around the world — have profited from his presidency. Some of that reporting can be found in an article that was written by reporters&nbsp;<b>David A. Fahrenthold</b>, Josh Dawsey and Joshua Partlow and published by the Post on Thursday morning, and one of the article’s revelations is that<b>&nbsp;a White House spokesman resented the Post’s investigation so much that he was willing to threaten Fahrenthold with a “dossier.”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In a written statement to the Post, the journalists report, Deere said: “The Washington Post is blatantly interfering with the business relationships of the Trump Organization, and it must stop. Please be advised that we are building up a very large ‘dossier’ on the many false David Fahrenthold and others stories as they are a disgrace to journalism and the American people.”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In that statement, Deere insisted that Trump has “turned over the day-to-day responsibilities of running the company, though he was not required to, (and) has sacrificed billions of dollars.” But Fahrenthold, Dawsey and Partlow, in their article, make it abundantly clear how much Trump’s businesses have profited from Trump’s presidency.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>“Trump has now visited his own properties 270 times as president</b>, according to a Washington Post tally — with another visit planned for Thursday, when he is scheduled to meet GOP donors at his Washington hotel,” the Post reporters explain.&nbsp;<b>“Through these trips, Trump has brought the Trump Organization a stream of private revenue from federal agencies and GOP campaign groups. Federal spending records show that taxpayers have paid Trump’s businesses more than $900,000 since he took office. At least $570,000 came as a result of the president’s travel</b>, according to a Post analysis.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>One of the Trump Organization’s profitable customers, according to Fahrenthold, Dawsey and Partlow, has been the U.S. Secret Service.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“New federal spending documents obtained by the Post via a public-records lawsuit give more detail about how the Trump Organization charged the Secret Service — a&nbsp;<b>kind of captive customer,</b>&nbsp;required to follow Trump everywhere,” the reporters note. “<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In addition to the rentals at Mar-a-Lago, the documents show that the Trump Organization charged daily ‘resort fees’ to Secret Service agents guarding Vice President Pence in Las Vegas and, in another instance, asked agents to pay a $1300 ‘furniture removal charge’ during a presidential visit to a Trump resort in Scotland.”</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Post journalists observe that Trump can cause his businesses to profit — at the expense of U.S. taxpayers — merely by setting foot in them.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The most frequent way Trump is known to have helped his properties has been just to visit them, with the vast, big-spending presidential entourage in tow,” they explain.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Noah Bookbinder, executive director of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told the Post, “One would think that if he was trying to completely isolate himself from his businesses, he wouldn’t talk about his business —&nbsp; he wouldn’t promote his business, he wouldn’t go to his businesses…. (But) his businesses have been a constant presence in his presidency. No, the idea that he was going to isolate himself completely — it’s been quite the opposite.”</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an720</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald Trump’s fundraising operation paid about $400,000 to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/11/15/trumps-d-c-hotel-is-for-sale-and-heres-the-pitch-get-rich-off-foreign-money/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Trump International Hotel in Washington</a>&nbsp;in the second quarter,&nbsp;an analysis by a researcher at the Center for Responsive Politics revealed.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Trump Victory Committee, a joint fundraising operation between Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee, spent about $400,000 at Trump’s hotel between April and June, according to CPR researcher Anna Massoglia.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump’s fundraising operation has steered “over $3 million in donations from presidential campaign donors to Trump family, properties & businesses with his 2020 re-election campaign & Trump MAGA joint fundraising [committee],”&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/annalecta/status/1283604353497079808" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Massoglia&nbsp;wrote on Twitter</a>. “$17.4M+ counting 2016."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[twt doc]</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the Trump Victory Committee previously spent more than $250,000 at the Washington hotel in the second quarter of 2019, according to an analysis by&nbsp;<a href="https://1100pennsylvania.substack.com/p/trump-victory-reached-250000-in-spending" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">1100 Pennsylvania</a>. The hotel has received more than $1.1 million in total from Trump Victory, the RNC, Vice President Mike Pence’s Great American Committee&nbsp;and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s Protect the House committee.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump campaign spending has been a boon for his private company, from which he has refused to divest. By last fall, political spending by Trump’s campaign committees and his allies at Trump properties topped $20 million,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/10/trump-properties-poli-spending-passes-20m/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">according to CPR data</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump’s presidency, which he kicked off by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/01/22/dc-attorney-general-sues-trumps-inaugural-committee-for-allegedly-violating-its-nonprofit-status_partner/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">dropping $1 million to book a ballroom</a>&nbsp;at his own hotel ahead of his inauguration, has also resulted in new cash flow for the company.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Washington Post’s David Fahrenthold has&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold/status/1283394589890621441?s=20" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">tracked about $970,000 in taxpayer spending</a>&nbsp;at Trump’s properties since he took office, though that number only scratches the surface. Both the administration and the Trump Organization have gone to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-has-paid-rates-as-high-as-650-a-night-for-rooms-at-trumps-properties/2020/02/06/7f27a7c6-3ec5-11ea-8872-5df698785a4e_story.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">great lengths to conceal</a>&nbsp;how much taxpayer money is spent at the properties.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Eric Trump, the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, claimed last year that the administration relied on the president’s properties to save taxpayers money.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Secret Service agents “stay at our properties for free — meaning, like, cost for housekeeping,”&nbsp;<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/g-7-at-trump-golf-resort-saves-the-us-money-eric-trump-192655739.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">he insisted</a>. “We charge them, like, 50 bucks.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But receipts obtained by The Post show that the Trump Organization&nbsp;<a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/03/06/trump-org-charged-taxpayers-eight-times-more-for-secret-service-stays-than-it-claimed-documents/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">jacked up the prices when Secret Service agents stayed at the property on the taxpayers’ dime</a>. The Trump Organization charges Secret Service an average of $396 per night, or about<b>&nbsp;eight times more than Eric Trump’s claim.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fahrenthold&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold/status/1283394589890621441?s=20" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">wrote on Twitter that he has found</a>&nbsp;“exactly zero cases where Trump Org did what they promised.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“They always charged more,” the reporter added.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Newly-released Federal Election Commission filings cast more light on the donors that powered Trump to a $262 million haul between his campaign committees and the party committees in the second quarter.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Top donors to the Trump Victory Committee&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/CATargetBot/status/1283598666368839680" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">included</a>&nbsp;Marvel CEO Isaac Perlmutter and his wife Laura, as well as&nbsp;Jet Support Services CEO Robert Book and his wife Amy. Both couples gave more than $1.1 million combined.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other top donors include&nbsp;oil tycoon Douglas Scharbauer ($580,000),&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tampabay.com/news/business/2019/11/22/the-man-who-gave-scientology-360-million-actually-answered-the-phone/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">prominent Scientologist Trish Duggan</a>&nbsp;($580,000) and Ross Perot Jr. ($575,000).</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Trump Supporters, that money he told he desperately needed to help him get re-elected went right in his pocket,”&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/MrJonCryer/status/1283609984077492227" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">actor and activist Jon Cryer</a>&nbsp;tweeted in response to the spending at the Washington hotel.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Who knew,”&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/dpakman/status/1283606724042260481" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">tweeted radio host David Pakman</a>, “running for president could be so profitable.”</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">authoritarian</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/trump-goes-ballistic-over-twitters-fact-check-but-he-has-no-idea-what-hes-talking-abou">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/trump-goes-ballistic-over-twitters-fact-check-but-he-has-no-idea-what-hes-talking-abou</a>t</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">T<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">hat didn’t take long.</span></font></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Around 5:30 PM</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">&nbsp;Twitter slapped a label on two of President Donald Trump’s tweets, inviting social media users to “get the facts about mail-in ballot.” It’s the first time Twitter has placed what some are calling a “warning label” on any individual tweet.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And while others say it’s not sufficient – Trump lies remain and the label isn’t especially strong – Trump went ballistic just two hours later.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Despite the fact that Trump was engaging in voter suppression, he is accusing Twitter of “<a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1265427538140188676" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election</a>."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">'They are saying my statement on Mail-In Ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect, based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Amazon Washington Post.”</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Actually, his tweets are filled with lies and falsehoods, no fact-checking required.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Trump did not stop there.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In yet another example of his belief that he is all powerful, Trump decreed, “<b>Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!</b>”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The President, who has never read the U.S. Constitution and little to no understanding of it, does not comprehend that he is using a private platform operated by a private company, and the only “free speech” guarantee is when the government “stifles” it.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter can do what they want. And they have.</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">cody f</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Twitter finally took a minor step to address the deluge of distortions, lies, and blatant disinformation flowing from President Donald Trump’s account.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Now, following a pair of Trump’s bogus tweets sent Tuesday morning spreading lies about mail-in voting, Twitter has inserted an alert telling readers to “Get the facts about mail-in ballots” as seen below:</font></p></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/twitter-finally-takes-a-step-to-counter-trumps-online-disinformation"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/twitter-finally-takes-a-step-to-counter-trumps-online-disinformation</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...[twet] C<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">licking the link brings readers to a page that addressed Trump’s falsehoods. It explained:</span></font></div><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: none !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On Tuesday, President Trump made a series of claims about&nbsp;<b>potential voter fraud after California Governor Gavin Newsom announced an effort to expand mail-in voting in California during the COVID-19 pandemic</b>. These claims are unsubstantiated, according to CNN, Washington Post and others. Experts say mail-in ballots are very rarely linked to voter fraud.</font></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It continued:</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;Trump falsely claimed that mail-in ballots would lead to “a Rigged Election.” However, fact-checkers say there is no evidence that mail-in ballots are linked to voter fraud.</font></span></p><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background: rgb(245, 245, 245); border: none !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">– Trump falsely claimed that California will send mail-in ballots to “anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there.” In fact, only registered voters will receive ballots.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">– Though Trump targeted California, mail-in ballots are already used in some states, including Oregon, Utah and Nebraska.</font></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">While it’s important to rebut Trump’s attempt to manipulate the election and mislead the population about the integrity of American democracy, it’s easy to see how this solution from Twitter will raise further problems.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Conservatives will undoubtedly be outraged by the fact-check. Given how social media outlets have caved to faux and unjustified conservative outrage in the past, it’s easy to imagine that Twitter will respond poorly to these attacks.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It also creates the problem that the rest of Trump’s Twitter feed remains littered with disinformation and lies, including smears about President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden and a horrendous conspiracy theory insinuating baselessly that former Rep. Joe Scarborough murdered a congressional staffer. Correcting some lies and not others could create the appearance that Twitter is putting its seal of approval on misinformation.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Some, including Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), have advocated that Twitter ban Trump completely because of his abuse of the platform.</b>&nbsp;Ultimately, someone like Trump leaves companies like Twitter in an incredibly difficult, perhaps impossible, situation. The best solution is to get reckless spreaders of disinformation out of power.</font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="yiv1495947851stylingblock-content-wrapper" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); min-width: 100%;"><tbody><tr style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px;"><td class="yiv1495947851stylingblock-content-margin-cell" style="padding: 0px 10px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; border-collapse: collapse;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="yiv1495947851stylingblock-content-wrapper" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-color: transparent; min-width: 100%;"><tbody><tr style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px;"><td class="yiv1495947851stylingblock-content-wrapper yiv1495947851camarker-inner" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; border-collapse: collapse;"><h2 style="line-height: 1;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pro-Trump OAN pushes wild conspiracy theory that novel coronavirus was created in a North Carolina lab</font></h2></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="yiv1495947851stylingblock-content-wrapper" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); min-width: 100%;"><tbody><tr style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px;"><td class="yiv1495947851stylingblock-content-wrapper yiv1495947851camarker-inner" style="padding: 0px 10px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; border-collapse: collapse;"><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" /><div style="line-height: 31px;"><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Pro-<b>Trump</b>&nbsp;cable news network OAN aired a special "investigative" look into the novel coronavirus and COVID-19. The network’s chief White House correspondent,&nbsp;<b>Chanel Rion</b>,&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=84a74f631ce0f26c771ef1d42101b99034ba610c184e421d8bf791f6c84a0a5ff8d192ba05de4dc8afcadfa392851d6bdf3cc84c69351959" title="suggested" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">suggested</a>&nbsp;that the novel coronavirus responsible for the current pandemic may have originated in a North Carolina laboratory.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">s support, Rion cited&nbsp;<b>Greg Rubini</b>, whom she described in the special as “a citizen investigator and monitored source amongst a certain set in the D.C. intelligence community.” There is no evidence that Rubini is a “monitored source” for anyone but Rion. He has pushed QAnon conspiracy theories about the “deep state” on Twitter</span>.&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Rubini also preposterously suggested that Dr.&nbsp;<b>Anthony Fauci</b>&nbsp;funded the creation of the novel coronavirus</span>&nbsp;and that Trump's political opponents spread it around the world, from China to Italy to back to the United States. This is obviously a totally bananas conspiracy theory -- but it's one the network fell for.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">This would be bad enough, but the Trump White House has credentialed the networked as well.</b>&nbsp;<b>And on Wednesday, Trump called on Rion during a White House briefing, where&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=84a74f631ce0f26c8b7002104c48880df73085b63649662f00003949340061e7062cfaec208dca5eaa9226c653e71c627539fd95ee9973c8" title="she asked" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">she asked</a>&nbsp;if the phrase "Chinese food" was racist, and accused the rest of the media of “siding with foreign state propaganda, Islamic radicals, and Latin gangs and cartels.”</b></font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Shortly after making a mockery of a public briefing in the middle of a pandemic that could&nbsp;kill millions, Rion&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=84a74f631ce0f26c7e3b84bb62085a995742d60c51ad4a096b075ba419c96cf3fdcd4555ab0a71995be0b468315b40d537f6173941b6bf6c" title="said that" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153);">said that</a>&nbsp;China was making an "odd" accusation that the novel coronavirus was created in the United States -- the same conspiracy theory that Rion herself had endorsed just days earlier.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">This isn't going to end, either: On Saturday, Trump&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=84a74f631ce0f26c46f953fafc5ed304bafa53fb3e4760d632b3e911e5da39559b6440c226d08966a55324fbd0daa5f6236d6ca6199ae271" title="again called on OAN" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">again called on OAN</a>&nbsp;and <b>used its question to attack The Washington Post.</b></font></p></div></td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="yiv1495947851stylingblock-content-wrapper" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); min-width: 100%;"><tbody><tr style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px;"><td class="yiv1495947851stylingblock-content-margin-cell" style="padding: 0px 10px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; border-collapse: collapse;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="yiv1495947851stylingblock-content-wrapper" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-color: transparent; min-width: 100%;"><tbody><tr style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px;"><td class="yiv1495947851stylingblock-content-wrapper yiv1495947851camarker-inner" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; border-collapse: collapse;"><h2 style="line-height: 1;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Featured Media</font></h2></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div></div><div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/elite-media-dismiss-voter-suppression-on-grounds-that-its-complicated"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/elite-media-dismiss-voter-suppression-on-grounds-that-its-complicated</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx pix twt</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Elite media dismiss voter suppression on grounds that it’s ‘complicated’</b></font></div><div>
</div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Julie Hollar / FAIR March 14, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some voters—disproportionately black and brown ones—waited in line for several hours on Super Tuesday to cast their ballots in the Democratic primary, and media paid attention. But their love for a good visual doesn’t always correspond with a love for connecting the dots, and so most of the coverage downplayed any suggestion that there might be voter suppression going on in 2020.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NYT: Why Did It Take So Long to Vote in Texas and California?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The New York Times (3/4/20) assured us that voting problems were not caused by “deliberate efforts to drive down turnout.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Why Did It Take So Long to Vote in Texas and California?” asked a New York Times headline (3/4/20), which offered a reassuring answer in its subhead: “Some voters stood in lines for hours. But despite voter suppression concerns, the primary breakdowns apparently reflected snafus more than malign intent.” Reporter Michael Wines explained:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some critics complained on Twitter and elsewhere that the delays amounted to voter suppression in a state where Republicans have been frequently sued, sometimes successfully, for trying to minimize Democratic power. But Texas elections are tightly controlled by local officials, not state ones. And in big cities like Houston and Austin which had the biggest problems on Tuesday, those officials are Democrats with scant reason to depress turnout in Democratic urban strongholds.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And yet, in the very next paragraph, Wines reported that “voting machines were divided equally between Democratic and Republican voters—but many more Democrats turned out to vote on Tuesday,” later explaining that</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the imbalance stemmed from the county Republican Party’s refusal to agree with Democrats to hold a joint primary election in metropolitan Houston in which voters could cast ballots on any machine. All but a handful of the state’s 254 counties held joint primaries.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The article’s final paragraph noted that the Houston voting site at historically black Texas Southern University, where people waited up to seven hours to vote,</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">allotted 10 voting machines to each party, and eventually added 14 additional machines for Democratic voters, she said. But of those who showed up on Tuesday, 1,132 voted in the Democratic primary. Sixty-eight voted for Republican candidates.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WaPo: Long voting lines in Texas spotlight concerns about access to the polls</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">The Washington Post </span>(3/4/20) blamed long voting lines on ” a number of complicated factors.”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It’s a curiously stark mismatch between evidence and conclusions, a phenomenon repeated in the Washington Post (3/4/20), where reporter Elise Viebeck likewise took issue with those suggesting voter suppression was happening:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">One of the remaining Democrats in the presidential field—Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—seized on the episode, tweeting that it revealed a “crisis of voter suppression.</span>”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">However, interviews with election officials, activists and voters pointed to a number of complicated factors that combined to produce the massive lines in Harris County.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>(The print version’s lead: “Voter suppression came to mind for some, but the reality was complicated.”)</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Like Wines, Viebeck noted the Harris County GOP’s refusal to hold a joint primary, and that, after the Supreme Court’s 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act, Texas closed 750 polling places—more than any other state.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A Houston Chronicle article (3/4/20) about the situation slightly complicated the question of responsibility for giving equal numbers of machines to each party (reporting that though Republicans refused the joint primary, which would have prevented the problem, they were given more machines than they asked for, because the Democratic county clerk’s office worried about charges of discrimination), but it also pointed out that “almost two-thirds of the county’s voting centers were in county commissioner precincts in west Harris County held by Republicans.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Sure, there were plenty of technological snafus and administrative errors—and those certainly need to be highlighted, so that pressure is put on election officials to fix them—but why pooh-pooh charges of voter suppression when voter suppression (which often masquerades as bureaucratic incompetence) is also an undeniable problem?</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MSNBC: Lawrence O'Donnell on Super Tuesday</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lawrence O’Donnell (MSNBC, 3/3/20) on long Super Tuesday lines: “They’re all kind of excited about this.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Others went so far as to celebrate the lines. On MSNBC (3/3/20), Lawrence O’Donnell reported:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">My phone is filled with texts from people, friends of mine in those lines. I have one from a Hollywood polling place where the casting director is in a conversation with a cinematographer and a math teacher and someone who was an undecided voter an hour ago in that line. And she says they just realized and only just realized that they’ve been on the line for two hours, because it’s been so much fun…. I’ve got one from a very affluent community in the Pacific Palisades, a director who’s been in line for two hours. He’s not complaining. They’re all kind of excited about this.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s charitable that the affluent aren’t complaining about standing in line for hours (as no one should face obstacles to vote)—but they’re also typically not worried about getting fired or missing a paycheck for doing so. Oblivious to this reality, O’Donnell also dismissed the idea that a city should be expected to make it possible for all of its citizens to vote:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And the infrastructure for voting in Los Angeles is a difficult one to maintain. Because on the last mayoral election, this is the election for the mayor of Los Angeles, the voter turnout was 20%. And so to build an infrastructure in Los Angeles that is capable of handling this giant surge turnout that they’re getting tonight is impossible.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To be fair, most journalists were more concerned than O’Donnell about people’s access to democracy, but they were still remarkably disinterested in asking how the concerted (and partisan) efforts to suppress turnout post-Shelby are playing out in 2020. In the Super Tuesday coverage, NBC (3/4/20) was the only broadcast network to air the words “voter suppression” (in a quote from a voter standing in line in Texas), in a segment less than two minutes long that noted the elimination of many voting centers in both Texas and California, but didn’t mention the partisan nature of that act in Texas, instead characterizing it as simply “designed to make voting easier.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>NYT: The Student Vote Is Surging. So Are Efforts to Suppress It.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The New York Times‘ earlier reporting (10/24/19) on efforts to suppress the student vote did not inform coverage of lower-than-expected youth turnout in the 2020 primaries.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The failure to connect the dots extends to coverage of lower-than-expected turnout, in particular youth turnout. Plenty of reporters seized on early turnout numbers to point out that Bernie Sanders’ campaign is failing in its goal of mobilizing youth and other traditionally low-turnout groups, but rarely do they look at the relationship between turnout and suppression—despite the fact that those groups typically face more obstacles to voting.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And Wines’ dismissal of suspicions of voter suppression on the grounds that urban polling places are controlled by Democrats seems to willfully ignore the fact that establishment Democrats often have a strong incentive to make sure that older Democrats vote more than young ones—and have been known to manipulate the voting process to their own advantage (City & State, 11/6/18).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>In fact, the Times‘ coverage was even more remarkable, given Wines’ insightful reporting months earlier about efforts to suppress the student vote in Texas</b>&nbsp;and several other states (10/24/19), in which he noted that recently enacted “restrictions fit an increasingly unabashed pattern of Republican politicians’ efforts to discourage voters likely to oppose them.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There surely are multiple reasons for lower-than-hoped-for turnout that no doubt intersect with each other, including both obstacles to voting and failure (or lack) of efforts to mobilize voters; it’s instructive to see where journalists instinctively turn to look for the culprit. Particularly post-Shelby, ID requirements, poll closures and voter roll purges have ramped up, inevitably taking a toll on democratic access. As Emory University’s Carol Anderson recently told Counterspin (3/3/20) about voter suppression:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">To see the overall pattern, and continuing to hammer it home, about what is at stake in this democracy…requires good investigative journalism, it requires going beyond the soundbite, it requires a clarion call: This nation is in danger.</font></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">=</span></span></font></h2></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.drillednews.com/post/why-is-news-coverage-leaving-out-the-fossil-fuel-funding-of-the-anti-greta"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.drillednews.com/post/why-is-news-coverage-leaving-out-the-fossil-fuel-funding-of-the-anti-greta</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[pix]</font></div><div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Journalists are creating a false equivalence between environmental activist Greta Thunberg and a 19-year-old German Youtuber named Naomi Seibt, without including information about the fossil fuel ties of the group funding her. </b></font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Seibt <a href="https://www.heartland.org/multimedia/videos-climate-change" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">recently joined</u></a> the Heartland Institute, a think tank with documented fossil fuel industry funding, and is scheduled to speak at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., this week.</font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The coverage of Seibt, which has appeared in outlets including The Washington Post and The Independent, has focused on her “skepticism” while failing to note her fossil fuel ties, which are not limited to the funding connection. Several of her talking points are demonstrably false, decades-old talking points cooked up by the fossil fuel industry itself. </font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>When mainstream media outlets generally considered to be credible leave out such details, subsequent pieces in smaller outlets tend to follow their framing, which can allow disinformation to<a href="https://psyarxiv.com/3n9u8/" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"> propagate more quickly</u></a>. </b> </font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Washington Post, which was the first American media outlet to cover Seibt, described her as “like Greta...blond, eloquent and European.” Thunberg is a brunette, but the more important difference between her and Seibt is that she cites scientific studies, while many of Seibt’s points on climate come from industry, not science. </font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Post's story stated that the Heartland Institute is “funded largely by anonymous donors” without mentioning any of the known donors, some of which are fossil fuel companies or trade groups that represent the industry.</font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>When the Post story came out, Seibt had about 50,000 YouTube followers, a relatively small audience for the platform. In the days since, she has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeYSlCaX1PheCaqxN7u2klw" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">gained more than 10,000 more.</u></a></b></font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">During a recent<a href="https://correctiv.org/en/top-stories-en/2020/02/11/the-heartland-lobby/" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"> investigation by German outlets CORRECTIV and Frontal21</a>, Heartland director James Taylor told undercover journalists that much of the organization's money is <a href="https://correctiv.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/infographic-EN.jpg" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">funneled through the dark money</u></a> group Donors Trust, which has <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/02/donors-trust-donor-capital-fund-dark-money-koch-bradley-devos/" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">ties to Charles Koch</u></a>.</font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">“Donors Trust is now directing between two-thirds and three-quarters of its budget to Heartland to support its climate-skeptical positions," Taylor told the undercover reporters.</font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, an industry trade group whose members include ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP, also <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/530115970/201801029349300205/IRS990ScheduleI" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">gave $75,000</u></a> to the Heartland Institute in 2017.</font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Post story also quoted Graham Brookie, who directs the <b>Digital Forensic Research Lab, an arm of the nonprofit Atlantic Council.</b> Brookie said the ideology Seibt presents “is not outright disinformation," but that it does "bear resemblance to a model we use called the <b>4d’s — dismiss the message, distort the facts, distract the audience, and express dismay at the whole thing.”</b></font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></b></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The Post's story did not mention that the Atlantic Council <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/support-the-council/honor-roll-of-contributors/" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"> is funded by</u></a> ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, Chevron, Shell, and BP.</b></font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In response to a request for comment, </font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The Washington Post’s Molly Gannon said only, “Our story speaks for itself.”</font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other news outlets seem to have copied the omission. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/25/anti-greta-teen-activist-cpac-conference-climate-sceptic" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">The Guardian</u></a>, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/anti-greta-thunberg-naomi-seibt-girl-climate-change-denial-heartland-institute-afd-a9355236.html" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">The Independent</u></a>, <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20200227-german-teen-naomi-seibt-the-darling-of-climate-change-deniers" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">France24</u></a>, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8040469/German-teenage-climate-change-denier-Naomi-Seibt-19-known-anti-Greta-speak-CPAC.html" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">the Daily Mail</u></a>, <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/news/conservative-think-tank-dispatches-german-teenager-dubbed-anti-greta-to-speak-at-cpac/" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">Mediaite</u></a>, <a href="https://www.mic.com/p/the-anti-greta-german-teen-naomi-seibt-is-taking-the-stage-at-cpac-2020-22418341" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">Mic</u></a>, and <a href="https://www.masslive.com/politics/2020/02/naomi-seibt-dubbed-the-anti-greta-thunberg-to-make-us-debut-at-this-weeks-conservative-political-action-conference.html" target="top" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _3Sq3W" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><u class="sDZYg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">MassLive</u></a> all published follow-on stories that did not mention the Heartland Institute’s financial backing from the fossil fuel industry. </font></p><div class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></div><p class="XzvDs _208Ie tFDi5 blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _6RI6N tFDi5" style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Heartland Institute seems to be trying to look like it has the youth on its side. So it has found a Gen Z surrogate who can parrot decades-old fossil fuel talking points, and earned major press coverage that frames her as a figure who compares to Thunberg, while completely leaving out the group's obvious, and documented, oil and gas industry connections.</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/furious-trump-fans-barrage-conservative-columnist-who-admitted-coronavirus-is-a-real-problem/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/furious-trump-fans-barrage-conservative-columnist-who-admitted-coronavirus-is-a-real-problem/</font></a></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Furious Trump fans barrage conservative columnist who admitted coronavirus is a real problem</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Brad Reed / Raw Story March 2, 2020</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A conservative columnist who is generally a supporter of President Donald Trump recently found himself getting barraged by the president’s fans because he admitted coronavirus could be a real problem for the global economy.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>As the New York Times reports, Republican Rob Maness recently wrote a column for the conservative LifeZette website that outlined potential negative economic impacts from coronavirus, including the disruption of supply chains.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The most significant major concern in America is the impact on pharmaceutical supply,” Maness wrote in his column. “Large numbers of drugs used to treat serious medical conditions are manufactured or their key components are produced in China. Medicines such as antibiotics amoxicillin, doxycycline, penicillin and other’s availabilities will be impacted as China continues its lock-down of factory workers because 90% of their sourcing is in China.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While this analysis was fairly straightforward in breaking down the economic risks of a viral pandemic, Maness tells the Times that many Trump supporters were furious with him for bringing up unwelcome facts.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">“I got accused of being&nbsp;<b>alarmist</b>&nbsp;and trying to hurt the president,” he said. “I actually said the government’s doing a pretty good job.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Trump spent the last few days attacking media coverage of the virus and</span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">&nbsp;accused the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Washington Post</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> of being the “ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE” after it published a devastating report showing his administration was scrambling to respond to the outbreak.</span></b></font></div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">=</span></span></font></h2></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/how-the-wapo-backing-limited-impeachment-was-constitutional-disaster/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/how-the-wapo-backing-limited-impeachment-was-constitutional-disaster/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>How the WaPo backing limited impeachment was constitutional disaster</b></font></div><div>
</div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Joshua Cho / FAIR February 28, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">FAIR (11/26/19, 2/4/20) has covered how one flagship ResistanceTM newspaper, the New York Times, trivialized the importance of the impeachment process as a check on authoritarianism by covering it as a partisan competition, littered with false equivalences, and underplaying the danger Donald Trump and the rest of the Republican Party poses to whatever tatters of democracy the US has left. Instead of raising critical questions about impeachment that would inform their audience of the ways the Democratic Party could function as an effective opposition party, the Times merely regurgitated uncritical “he said, she said” statements, without making the effort to determine whether one side had greater credibility.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Another critical flaw with corporate media’s coverage of impeachment was how it obscured the extent of the Trump administration’s litany of impeachable offenses.</b> The political case for expanding the scope of impeachment, going beyond the Democratic establishment’s narrow attention to abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in the Ukraine case, to all of Trump’s crimes, has been made in several places (e.g., Intercept, 9/26/19; Current Affairs, 2/5/20). Renowned attorney Ralph Nader and constitutional scholars Bruce Fein and Louis Fisher presented no less than 12 impeachable offenses in the Congressional Record (12/18/19).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>They range all the way from violations of the Constitution’s Declare War and Treaty clauses, when Trump waged war in countries like Libya and Syria, and unilaterally terminated the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia, to violations of the Appropriations and Appointments clauses, as when he spent billions in excess of what Congress appropriated for the US/Mexican border wall, and appointed “acting” Cabinet officials not confirmed by the Senate. </b>House Democrats impeaching Trump exclusively for his dealings with the Ukrainian president, and for preventing Congress from investigating that isolated incident, was a form of unilateral disarmament that implied Trump was not guilty of anything else, and journalists were under no obligation to stick to that script.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A look at how impeachment was covered by another crusading ResistanceTM publication, the Washington Post, shows how the paper obscured the credible case for impeaching Trump on a variety of other grounds, endorsing the Democrats’ tunnel-vision approach.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Post’s “For Impeachment, Quick and Narrow Is the Way to Go” (12/9/19), by deputy editorial page editor Ruth Marcus, argued:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Narrow is better because the president’s bad conduct with respect to Ukraine was significantly worse than his bad conduct elsewhere, including his demonstrated efforts to obstruct justice in the special counsel’s probe into Russian meddling….</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sooner is better than later, even though that means lawmakers and the public will be deprived of important, potentially revelatory, testimony that Democrats might be able to compel through court proceedings. The reason is that, even assuming such litigation would succeed, going to court to compel testimony from such recalcitrant witnesses as former national security adviser John Bolton or acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, and then determining the permissible scope of that testimony, would likely take months.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Post columnist Jennifer Rubin (12/9/19) likewise argued that the Democrats’ fixation on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress was powerful precisely because it was the “tightest possible case,” and that testimonies from Donald McGahn and John Bolton were unnecessary to make a “razor-sharp case,” because the “central misdeed is provable from Trump’s own words.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another Post op-ed (12/4/19), by Watergate Era Judiciary Committee member Elizabeth Holtzman, argued that there are “good reasons” for “including non-Ukraine-related abuses in the charges against Trump,” because focusing “only on Ukraine suggests that Trump’s impeachable offenses are limited to this one matter.” But although it mentioned that Trump’s “abuses are staggering and continuous,” it suggested that other issues—her focus is on Trump’s “impeding the Russia investigation”—could be included in “a broader article of impeachment against Trump for hindering Congress in its constitutional role in conducting an impeachment inquiry.” This would obviate the need for “further investigation”—but also limit the charges against Trump to a circular complaint that he prevented Congress from bringing substantive complaints.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When the Washington Post (12/10/19) explained the House’s articles of impeachment, it mentioned that the House’s allegations of abuse of power were specifically confined to Trump’s dealings with Ukraine in order to launch investigations into political opponent Joe Biden. However, the Post left out other ways Democrats could go after Trump’s abuse of power. One example that Nader, Fein and Fisher’s list of Trump’s offenses included in the category of abuse of power was Trump’s making “presidential lies as routine as the rising and setting of the sun” and “confounding civil discourse truth and public trust.” This has precedent, as the House cited Richard Nixon’s “false or misleading public statements for the purpose of deceiving the people of the United States” as part of its articles of impeachment in 1974.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In another report, the Post (9/25/19) parroted the “private discussions” Democratic officials were having regarding the scope of impeachment, where they asserted that the “evidence was incriminating enough,” and “easy enough for voters to understand,” that “narrowing the investigation, if only in terms of political messaging, made sense.” Why does the Post take Democratic officials at their word when they claim to be pursuing this approach to impeachment for the sake of easing understanding, or leave their strategy unchallenged? The Post doesn’t need to rely on Democratic officials to inform their audience of the possible impeachment strategies Democrats could pursue.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Later, the Post (10/10/19) reported that “recent revelations” were “testing the limits of House Speaker Pelosi’s narrow impeachment strategy, leading some Democrats to wonder whether the probe should be expanded beyond the Ukraine scandal.” It claimed that by “solely focusing on Ukraine, Democrats could miss the opportunity to build a stronger case against the president,” but restricted the potential broadening of the case to Trump trying to enlist then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s aid in stopping the prosecution of a Turkish-Iranian gold trader, and to Trump’s public request to the Chinese government to investigate the activities of Hunter Biden. Apparently, the Post doesn’t consider things like Trump initiating the withdrawal of the US from the Paris climate agreement—and sabotaging international efforts to avoid further climate catastrophe—as a “high crime” and an impeachable offense, as legal scholar Marjorie Cohn does (Truthout, 6/6/17).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">When the Post (12/2/19) reported on Democratic officials potentially drafting additional articles of impeachment related to obstructing Mueller’s Russia investigation and using the presidency to enrich himself, it euphemized Trump’s unconstitutional refusal to divest himself from his businesses as an “unorthodox decision,” and uncritically parroted other Democrats absurdly claiming that “the evidence is not there to support such an indictment.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Journalist Christian Parenti (Jacobin, 1/9/20), by contrast, reported that the Democrats were uncomfortable with going after Trump on his blatant violations of the emoluments clause—forbidding him from receiving gifts from foreign powers and limiting presidential remuneration solely to the presidential salary—because it would inevitably open a discussion on the legal bribes the Democrats take from the same corporations that patronize Trump’s hotels.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>This suggests that the Democrats pursued such a disastrous approach to impeachment—not out of incompetence or in good faith—but as a cynical spectacle of faux resistance</b>. When the late historian Howard Zinn discussed how the Democrats and the media handled President Richard Nixon’s impeachment, he observed that they didn’t want to emphasize elements of his behavior “found in other presidents” that “might be repeated in the future,” leaving things like “corporate influence on the White House,” and the “power of the president to do anything he wanted in the name of ‘national security,’” intact:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Valuable information came out of the investigations, but it was just enough, and in just the right way—moderate press coverage, little television coverage, thick books of reports with limited readership—to give the impression of an honest society correcting itself.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That might be why the Post’s later report (2/5/20) on the Democrats’ failure to remove Trump from office contained no insights on whether impeachment would have had more political success if the Democrats pursued a broader investigation into Trump’s crimes. Of course the Senate was never going to convict; the point was to hold the president accountable—and win over public opinion in the process—by operating as an effective opposition party possessing moral integrity.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Journalist Aaron Maté (Le Monde Diplomatique, 11/19) discussed how the Russiagate conspiracy theory and the Ukraine scandal were both focused on protecting the unsavory conduct of establishment Democratic figures, and portraying Trump as an incompetent steward of the US empire. Maté concluded that the Democrats pursued such a shallow impeachment process because&nbsp;</font><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">in Washington, elites generally face consequences for the harm they cause not to the general population but to other members of the club.</span> The standard was laid bare in Watergate (1972–74), when Richard Nixon faced impeachment, not for mass murder in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, but for targeting the opposing elite faction and trying to cover it up. George W. Bush could have been impeached for the Iraq invasion in 2003 had this crime not been carried out with bipartisan support.</span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ever since the election of Donald Trump, the Washington Post has always presented itself as one of the crusading publications leading the ResistanceTM movement against the current administration. It even adopted the “Democracy Dies in Darkness” motto on its masthead as a marketing gimmick to attract more subscribers. <b>Yet it’s clear that the Post’s impeachment coverage served more to preserve the stability and legitimacy of US institutions—rather than their integrity—by obscuring the extent of the Trump administration’s crimes and impeachable offenses, and endorsing a fatally narrow scope of impeachment.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/obama-was-unprepared-for-trump-and-the-gops-total-has-abandonment-of-the-rule-of-law-wapo-editor/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/obama-was-unprepared-for-trump-and-the-gops-total-has-abandonment-of-the-rule-of-law-wapo-editor/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><div class="teaser-cardcontent" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 1.5rem;"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><h2 class="teaser-cardtitle" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em;"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" /><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/wash-post-sidelines-contributing-opinion-writer-and-megalobbyist-ed-rogers-ahead" rel="bookmark" class="teaser-cardlink" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: block; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;"><span property="schema:name" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Wash. Post sidelines contributing opinion writer and megalobbyist Ed Rogers ahead of 2020</font></span></a></h2><p class="dateline-compact" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.3rem 0px 0px; align-items: center; display: flex; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: 2px; text-transform: uppercase;"><span class="dateline-compacttype" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; height: 1.5em; margin-right: 1em; width: 1.5em;"><svg viewbox="0 0 24 24" class="icon icon--article" aria-labelledby="icon-label--article" /><font size="4"><use xlink:href="#article" xmlns:xlink="xlink" /></font><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><svg id="article" viewbox="0 0 24 24" /></font></font><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><path d="M0 1h24v4H0zm0 6h24v4H0zm0 6h24v4H0zm0 6h18v4H0z" fill="inherit" fill-rule="evenodd" /></font></font></span><time datetime="2019-10-11T10:29:27-0400" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">10/11/19 10:29 AM EDT</font></time></p></div></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/is-the-gop-really-willing-to-burn-our-republic-to-the-ground-in-order-to-maintain-its-hold-on-power"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/is-the-gop-really-willing-to-burn-our-republic-to-the-ground-in-order-to-maintain-its-hold-on-power</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gaslighting for Beginners</font></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The standard GOP gaslighting on Ukrainegate is beautifully exemplified by the columnist&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/10/03/democrats-are-misleading-public-about-william-barr/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Marc Thiessen</a>, a regular contributor to the Washington Post and a living rebuttal to the canard that the media leans left. </b>Thiessen writes: “There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking foreign heads of state or intelligence officials to cooperate with an official Justice Department investigation.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">True. If this were a legitimate investigation aimed at advancing US national interests, rather than an illegal personal crusade to benefit Donald J. Trump. The attempt to spin it as the former is at the heart of the Republican counter-strategy, but it doesn’t hold a thimbleful of water.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s hardly worth the figurative ink required to dismantle all the dishonesty in his statement, but just as an exercise:</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The DOJ “investigation” that Bill Barr is heading—aimed at undermining the US Intelligence Community’s conclusion that Russian aided Trump in the 2016 election—is itself a partisan sham and abuse of power. Citing it as justification for Trump strongarming Kiev is a circular argument and master class in graft. Team Trump’s contention that its interest in Ukraine was and is an altruistic campaign against generic “corruption” is laughable, especially coming from the most corrupt presidency in modern US history. The only “corruption” Trump referred to in the Zelensky call was the fairy tale of Biden’s wrongdoing. (Even if one believes Hunter Biden was unethically trading on his father’s position, Joe Biden was in no way complicit in that…..and by the by, that is the entire stock-in-trade of the Trump children.) Only the willfully blind could fail to recognize Trump’s true motive as regards Ukraine—damaging a political rival, and using the full might of the US presidency to do so, which is the very epitome of the corruption in its own right.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Of course, it has grown tedious to point out that if Barack Obama had phoned a foreign leader and demanded an investigation of Tagg Romney while holding US military aid for ransom, he would already be the GOP poster child for a new version of “Strange Fruit,” covered by Kid Rock and Ted Nugent.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Thiessen’s disgraceful apologia represents mainstream conservative thought in the age of Donald, where seldom is heard a discouraging word. Never, in fact.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To that end, I was admittedly shocked to see some Republicans, including those twin pillars of hypocrisy Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham (to the extent that a pillar can be spineless and flaccid) push back over Trump’s unconscionable betrayal of our Kurdish allies this week. Why the GOP is willing to risk incurring Trump’s wrath over that and not, say, over selling our country out to the highest bidder, remains a mystery. But no elected Republican, not even Mitt Romney, who is what passes for a GOP profile in courage these days (we’re grading on a sliding scale), has really stood up to the president in the way that his actions call for. And I am not confident that sufficient numbers will do so should it come down to an impeachment trial in the Senate.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(On the subject of Syria, and adding to the madness, at a time when Trump desperately needs the fealty of Senate Republicans, why did he choose this moment to piss off even Moscow Mitch and Leningrad Lindsey? More proof that he doesn’t think strategically at all, only impulsively, despite repeated efforts to credit him for such.)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But even this rare sighting of the elusive Republican vertebrate in the wild has a dark side, as noted by the New York Times’&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/08/opinion/republicans-trump-kurds.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Jamelle Bouie</a>&nbsp;in what may have been the most incisive observation of the week. In addressing this question of why Republicans stick with Trump so submissively, the conventional wisdom is that it’s a Faustian bargain. But Bouie argues convincingly that it’s really something much simpler and uglier: they agree with him.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">"Trump has taken an ax to domestic spending programs for the poor—his Agriculture Department just&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/04/us/politics/trump-food-stamp-cuts.html?module=inline" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">proposed</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">&nbsp;new cuts to food stamps; he signed a tax cut that funnels trillions to the highest earners; and he stacked the federal judiciary with right-wing ideologues. It’s hard to imagine a better outcome for a conservative politician."</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bouie points to the pushback on Syria as evidence that this narrative that the GOP fears the wrath of Trump and his base is wrong. They&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">will</em>&nbsp;in fact stand up to him when they wish….and not only on foreign policy but on tariffs and economic issues as well. So perhaps we should take those Republicans at their word when they say they don’t think blackmailing foreign powers for personal gain with US tax dollars is a problem.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As long as it’s a Republican who does it.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mma 9191</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" font-size="font-size" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><i><b>Also:&nbsp;</b></i>Multiple news organizations reported this week that the Trump administration is expected to finish its rollback of a&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=96927e51c0e1f6e333074c48a603c9c2fdd9526c925e2730172110d5e5e6552a9399237a2ec74d6339b63f36e2b9301dd83ab5bdbcdc66a6" title="2015 Obama administration regulation" style="">2015 Obama administration regulation</a>&nbsp;which limited pollutants near waterways.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" font-size="font-size" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While many of these outlets explained in their articles’ headlines and tweets that the rule change would effectively increase water pollution,&nbsp;<i>The Washington Post</i>&nbsp;instead&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=96927e51c0e1f6e30b65d7f5305f1e84ac817199409c0a9f184d39f29eb65b5ffc95316e711b950aac9353cfbbbcec11013fd8c7c05f3175" title="pushed" style="">framed their piece around</a>&nbsp;President Trump’s characterization that the Obama-era regulation is “destructive and horrible.”</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click1.e.alternet.org/jsqfmzncndswsmkkwtjnnwnkktwkcvqpfdnsjbzbtbvn_amdkmlslnmhpydkskpp.html?a=&b=913&c=21989&d=2" style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Covington Catholic High School teen’s $250 million lawsuit against Washington Post dismissed</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 719</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/05/the-white-house-enacts-a-mass-purge-against-journalists-access-and-subjects-reporters-to-sarah-sanderss-whims-report"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/05/the-white-house-enacts-a-mass-purge-against-journalists-access-and-subjects-reporters-to-sarah-sanderss-whims-report</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/?s=Sarah+Sanders" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders</a></span>&nbsp;has quietly implemented a new standard that has resulted in what one journalist calls “a mass purge” of “almost the entire White House press corps.”</b></font></p><div class="p1_8" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Huckabee Sanders revoked the press credentials, known as a “hard pass,” for all Washington Post reporters assigned to cover the White House, and many others.</b>&nbsp;That would be six correspondents, and Dana Milbank, a veteran journalist who writes an opinion column at the Washington Post, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-white-house-has-revoked-my-press-pass-its-not-just-me--its-curtailing-access-for-all-journalists/2019/05/08/bb9794b4-71c0-11e9-8be0-ca575670e91c_story.html?utm_term=.309f72f2c67d" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">is the first to report this storyAfter covering four presidents, I received an email informing me that Trump’s press office had revoked my White House credential,” Milbank writes in The Washington Post Wednesday evening.</a></font></p><div class="p3_8" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It was part of a mass purge of ‘hard pass’ holders after the White House implemented a new standard that designated as unqualified almost the entire White House press corps, including all six of The Post’s White House correspondents,” Milbank continues. “White House officials then chose which journalists would be granted ‘exceptions.’ It did this over objections from news organizations and the White House Correspondents’ Association.”......punked by ...th a headline predicting that natural gas “will thrive in the age of renewables,” the <b>article</b> made the case that there are limitations on solar and wind power and that — as a subhead spelled out in aquamarine type — natural gas “is part of the solution.” Why was the<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/brand-studio/api-why-natural-gas-will-thrive-in-the-age-of-renewables/?tid=bc_api_rm_pm" style="letter-spacing: 0.01em; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Washington Post</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">&nbsp;</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">weighing in on the need for continued production of this fossil fuel in the face of climate change?</span></span></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></font></div><div data-reactid="203" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Or was it? On closer inspection, the report wasn’t coming from the D.C. paper’s newsroom. Though the link takes you to a page published by WashingtonPost.com, the story is actually a publication of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/brand-studio/archive/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">WP BrandStudio</a>, the paper’s branded content platform. In other words, the article is really an advertisement, and the copy was paid for by the American Petroleum Institute. The tagline — “Content from American Petroleum Institute” —&nbsp;is plain to see if you’re looking for it, though easy to miss if you’re not.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s not surprising that the trade group representing the oil and gas industry would want to leap to the defense of natural gas now. The notion that the energy source is a “bridge fuel” that will somehow safely deliver us to wind and solar — and past the threat of climate change — has been vaporized by recent science.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The combustion of natural gas does in fact create less carbon dioxide than the burning of coal, as the API “article” notes, pointing out that “new natural gas plants emit 50 to 60 percent less carbon into the atmosphere than new coal facilities.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But what the piece doesn’t mention is that the drilling, extraction, and transport of natural gas also releases methane</b>. And though carbon dioxide is the best-known greenhouse gas and stays in the atmosphere longer than methane, methane traps at least 86 times more heat than carbon dioxide before it degrades.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nor does it reference the fact that the amount of methane in the atmosphere has increased sharply in the past few years and, scientists warn, threatens to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/17/methane-levels-sharp-rise-threaten-paris-climate-agreement" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">derail</a>&nbsp;efforts to limit warming. While there are questions as to which of several global sources of methane — including cows, wetlands, and coal mines — is driving the recent spike in emissions, evidence has tied it to the boom of natural gas production. And that in turn has led many scientists to assail the idea that natural gas is a “greener” fuel. In fact, depending on the leakage rate during production, natural gas may be even worse for the climate than coal.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This idea that natural gas is better than coal is just a distraction,” said Robert Howarth, a biogeochemist at Cornell whose&nbsp;<a href="https://youtu.be/1NPuYr1LGMI" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">research</a>&nbsp;has tied the particular type of methane newly found in the atmosphere to shale gas production. “If you’re serious about keeping the planet below 2 degrees of warming, you can’t do that without cutting down on methane. We need to move away from all fossil fuels as quickly as we can.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Not surprisingly, the Washington Post piece — or rather, the American Petroleum Institute piece in the Washington Post — doesn’t include any comments from independent scientists like Howarth. Instead, it quotes Wayne Winegarden, a businessperson affiliated with climate-denying organizations such as the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.heartland.org/about-us/who-we-are/wayne-h-winegarden" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Heartland Institute</a>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pacificresearch.org/team/wayne-winegarden-ph-d/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Pacific Research Institute</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fossil fuel companies aren’t the only ones using stories that appear to be part of a journalistic publication, but are actually paid for by advertisers in attempt to improve an image suffering in the coverage done by actual journalists. Native advertising, as it’s called, has spread misinformation on everything from the “superfood”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.healthnewsreview.org/2018/10/sponsored-contents-slippery-slope-uc-davis-and-wapo-laud-moringa-the-next-superfood/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">moringa</a>&nbsp;to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cjr.org/watchdog/reuters-article-thai-fishing-sponsored-content.php" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Thai seafood slavery</a>, and has raised serious questions about journalistic ethics.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And WP BrandStudio, which has also produced spots for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/brand-connect/bp/lower-48/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">BP</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/brand-connect/lockheedmartin/the-right-directions/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Lockheed Martin</a>, is hardly the only example of a branded content shop associated with a mainstream newspaper helping fossil fuel companies spin their message.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.tbrandstudio.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">T Brand Studio</a>, a brand marketing unit within the New York Times, has produced pieces for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/paidpost/chevron/how-abundant-energy-is-fueling-us-growth.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Chevron</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBiTdaBCkj4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Exxon Mobil</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgTeMGjA1L0" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Shell</a>.</font></p><div class="img-wrap align-bleed large-bleed width-auto" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 2em; line-height: 1; position: relative; transition: opacity 300ms linear 200ms; opacity: 1; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><p class="caption overlayed" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; letter-spacing: 0.01em; word-spacing: -0.25em; display: inline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ponsored content by the American Petroleum Institute, published on the Washington Post’s website.</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font>

Screenshot: The Intercept]</p></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At a time when many publications are struggling to stay afloat —&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/shrinking-newspapers-and-the-costs-of-environmental-reporting-in-coal-country?utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_032619&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bd670802ddf9c619438c90b&user_id=26166469&esrc=&utm_term=TNY_Daily" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">cover the costs of environmental reporting</a>&nbsp;— native advertising is an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.emarketer.com/content/native-ad-spend-will-make-up-nearly-60-of-display-spending-in-2018" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">increasingly important</a>&nbsp;piece of the financial puzzle. The paid features that mimic actual reporting brought in&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.wan-ifra.org/2018/12/11/new-report-publishers-increasingly-counting-on-native-advertising" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">20 percent</a>&nbsp;of all advertising income for news media organizations in 2017, according to the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers and the Native Advertising Institute.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the issue of fossil fuel companies’ massive spending to greenwash their image is quickly heating up as scientific evidence — and unbiased reporting on it — is pointing to the need to phase out fossil fuels as soon as possible. Industry trade groups spent almost $1.4 billion on PR, advertising and communications contractors over the past decade, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://climateinvestigations.org/trade-association-pr-spending/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Climate Investigations Center</a>, almost half of which came from the American Petroleum Institute.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The five largest publicly traded oil and gas&nbsp;companies have spent some $1 billion on “narrative capture” and lobbying since the Paris Agreement was struck in 2016, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://influencemap.org/report/How-Big-Oil-Continues-to-Oppose-the-Paris-Agreement-38212275958aa21196dae3b76220bddc" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">report</a>&nbsp;published this month by Influence Map. That spending includes $195 million on “often misleading branding campaigns.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even before they kicked into high gear to counter the growing public awareness of climate change, some oil and gas companies were engaged in sly, aggressive, and destructive media efforts to counter their opponents.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2014, Chevron launched a publication that appears to exist for the sole purpose of defending its refinery in Richmond, California. The refinery had a long history of chemical leaks, fires, dangerous emissions, and unsafe conditions before a leak led to a massive explosion in 2012. The incident sent a “toxic fireball of smoke” over Richmond and prompted 15,000 residents to seek medical help, as the East Bay Express&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2015/01/29/chevron-management-failures-led-to-massive-august-2012-explosion-in-richmond" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a>&nbsp;after the federal Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board issued its final report on the incident in 2015.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the&nbsp;<a href="https://richmondstandard.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Richmond Standard</a>, a local publication Chevron launched in 2013, didn’t cover the report that way — and doesn’t appear to have covered it at all. The Standard “produces news about what is going on in the surrounding community,” according to Braden Reddall, an external affairs advisor for Chevron. And a recent edition of the site, which included an&nbsp;<a href="https://richmondstandard.com/sports/2019/03/14/san-pablo-baseball-association-opening-day-parade-set-for-april-6/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">article</a>&nbsp;on the announcement of a date for the coming Little League parade and&nbsp;a&nbsp;<a href="https://richmondstandard.com/richmond/2019/03/17/caspers-dogs-still-delight-after-seven-decades/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">review</a>&nbsp;of the local hot dog joint, bears that out.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite appearing to be an unbiased news source, the Standard also includes a section of feel-good news about the refinery that includes no mention of the health and safety issues other publications have reported as linked to the refinery. Chevron’s Reddall pointed out in an email that the section on the refinery is “clearly marked as editorial under the ‘Chevron Speaks’ heading.” His email also noted that “The West Contra Costa County region has embraced the publication.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But not all locals have a positive view of the Standard. “They created it so they could control the narrative,” said Greg Karras, senior scientist at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.cbecal.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Communities for a Better Environment</a>, a group that has been calling attention to health impacts of the refinery for decades. “When there’s something they want or don’t want and is really important to the business, they want their story about it to get out, rather than rely on independent reporting.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chevron seems to have had an even darker purpose in mind when it created the&nbsp;<a href="http://theamazonpost.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Amazon Post</a>. The website, which has a “breaking news” column and “most read” section, identifies itself in small type as “Chevron’s Views and Opinions on the Ecuador Lawsuit.” But the Post’s real purpose appears to be the targeting of Steven Donziger — an attorney with whom the company has been engaged in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/01/09/reversal-of-fortune-patrick-radden-keefe" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">pitched legal battle</a>&nbsp;over massive pollution in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador for more than two decades.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chevron’s Reddall says that the company maintains the Amazon Post “to express the company’s views and opinions on a fraudulent lawsuit against the company in Ecuador” and that “the information about Steven Donziger chronicles his long history of illegal activity.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For his part, Donziger, who was part of a legal team that won a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/world/americas/15ecuador.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">$9.5 billion judgment</a>&nbsp;in the Ecuadorian courts against Chevron over the pollution, says that the Post is just one of the tools the giant energy company has used to personally and professionally destroy him. While three Ecuadorian courts, including the highest court in the land, upheld the judgment, U.S. District Court Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ruled that it should not be enforced because parts of it were “corruptly ghostwritten” in return for the promise of a bribe.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chevron, which has employed at least&nbsp;<a href="http://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/35294-Chevron-Using-60-Law-Firms-and-2-000-Legal-Personnel-To-Evade-Ecuador-Environmental-Liability-Company-Reports" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">2,000 lawyers and legal personnel from more than 60 firms</a>&nbsp;to work on litigation around the pollution in Ecuador, also filed a lawsuit&nbsp;against Donziger in 2011 alleging that he won the judgment in Ecuador through fraud and racketeering. Kaplan decided&nbsp;the case in Chevron’s favor in a trial held without a jury. And recently that decision was the basis for Donziger having his legal license&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apnews.com/5d34d65ed0294f3489e8e4d6abef746e" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">suspended</a>&nbsp;without a hearing and his bank account frozen. While Donziger has denied that he committed misconduct and contested his suspension in court, the company has delighted over his suffering in the Amazon Post.</font></p></div><div data-reactid="213" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There may soon be more fossil fuel company publications entirely devoted to smearing the reputation of individuals, according to Robert Brulle. “They’re likely going to attack Alexandria Ocasio Cortez personally and demonize her. They’ve already begun that,” said Brulle, a sociologist and visiting professor of environment and society at Brown University. “It’s an old strategy — to delegitimize your opponents.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Brulle also thinks that there will soon be more native advertising from oil and gas companies, which he classifies as “classic propaganda.” “We’re going to see a lot more from API, Exxon Mobil, and other companies,” said Brulle, who notes that the share of oil and gas industry spending on think tanks, such as Heartland, is about a tenth of its expenditures on communications. “As the threat of possible change to the fossil fuel industry increases, they ramp up their resources.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And of course, change to our energy system is not just possible — it’s necessary.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Nations have barely a decade to take ‘<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/10/08/world-has-only-years-get-climate-change-under-control-un-scientists-say/?utm_term=.cdfeb616320a" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">unprecedented</a>’ actions and cut their emissions in half by 2030 to prevent the worst consequences of climate change,” as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/12/05/we-are-trouble-global-carbon-emissions-reached-new-record-high/?utm_term=.6780700ed203" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">a December article</a>&nbsp;about the climate talks in Poland explained. That article appeared in the Washington Post — the real one.</font></p></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/03/saudi-arabia-had-access-to-jeff-bezos-phone-investigator-drops-bombshell-allegation-against-the-middle-east-kingdom/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Saudi Arabia ‘had access’ to Jeff Bezos’ phone: Investigator drops bombshell allegation against the Middle East kingdom</font></a></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/bob-brigham/" title="Posts by Bob Brigham" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Bob Brigham</a>&nbsp;/&nbsp;<a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/salon/" title="Posts by Salon " class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Salon</a></font></span></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Renowned celebrity private investigator Gavin De Becker “concluded with high confidence” that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had access to the cell phone of Amazon founder and Washington Post owner…</font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">fail?</font></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">wapo</font></p><div data-elm-loc="0" class="inline-content inline-photo inline-photo-normal horizontal-photo" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 12px; padding-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-image: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; margin-top: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important; border-top: 0px !important;"><span class="pb-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 1.25em; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Journalist Ronan Farrow poses at the 25th Annual ELLE Women in Hollywood Celebration in October 2018. (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)</font></span></div><div class="author-sig-line-wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 22px; display: inline-block; flex-direction: column; max-width: inherit !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="author-sig-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font><div class="author-byline multiple" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: flex; flex-flow: row wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font><div class="author-wrapper" data-authorname="Allyson Chiu" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font><div class="author-info" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; float: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="by-lbl" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">By</span>&nbsp;<a class="author-name" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/allyson-chiu/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Allyson Chiu</a>&nbsp;<span class="byline-divider-lbl" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 3px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">and</span></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div></div><div class="author-wrapper" data-authorname="Kayla Epstein" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative;"><div class="author-info" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; float: left;"><a class="author-name" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/kayla-epstein/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Kayla Epstein</a></div></div></div></div><span class="author-timestamp" itemprop="datePublished" content="2019-02-08T11:38-500" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">February 8 at 11:38 AM</span></div><p data-elm-loc="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ronan Farrow said Thursday that he and “at least one other prominent journalist” who had reported on the National Enquirer and President Trump received blackmail threats from the tabloid’s parent company, American Media Inc., over their work.</font></p><p data-elm-loc="2" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Farrow’s allegation came just hours after Amazon chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos published a&nbsp;<a href="https://medium.com/@jeffreypbezos/no-thank-you-mr-pecker-146e3922310f" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">remarkable public post</a>&nbsp;on Medium accusing the National Enquirer of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/2019/02/07/f501d20c-2b2d-11e9-b2fc-721718903bfc_story.html?utm_term=.fa9c0eafe21c" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">attempting to extort and blackmail him</a>&nbsp;by threatening to publish intimate photos unless he stopped investigating the publication. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.[twits]</font></p><p data-elm-loc="2" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ast April, Farrow published an article in the New Yorker about the Enquirer’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-national-enquirer-a-donald-trump-rumor-and-another-secret-payment-to-buy-silence-dino-sajudin-david-pecker" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">“catch and kill” practice</a>&nbsp;— in which stories are buried by paying off sources — that benefited Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.</font></p><p data-elm-loc="5" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AMI did not immediately return a message from The Post about Farrow’s claim.</font></p><p data-elm-loc="6" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The allegations from Bezos and Farrow have since prompted other journalists and media outlets to come forward with claims that they, too, had been targeted by AMI for reporting on the Enquirer.</font></p><p data-elm-loc="7" class="interstitial-link " style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2019/02/08/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-accuses-national-enquirer-extortion-over-intimate-photos/?utm_term=.80b8b5c5f740" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos accuses National Enquirer of extortion over intimate photos</a>]</font></span></p><p data-elm-loc="8" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In response to Farrow, former Associated Press editor Ted Bridis&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/tbridis/status/1093694924527190016" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">tweeted</a>&nbsp;a similar story[twits]</font></p><p data-elm-loc="8" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p data-elm-loc="8" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bridis&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/tbridis/status/1093667404322881536" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">claimed&nbsp;</a>in a separate tweet referencing Bezos’s Medium post that AMI, the Enquirer and its lawyers “tried to shut down public interest reporting on tabloid’s work on behalf of Trump.”</font></p><p data-elm-loc="11" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Daily Beast also reported that attorneys for AMI responded aggressively to two reports published last week that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/bezos-investigators-question-the-brother-of-his-mistress-lauren-sanchez-in-national-enquirer-leak-probe" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">detailed&nbsp;</a>Bezos’s investigation into the Enquirer. In its article about Thursday’s Medium post, the Daily Beast&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/bezos-national-enquirer-threatened-me-with-a-dck-pick?ref=home" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">disclosed&nbsp;</a>that during the process of that reporting, the publication “and a member of its staff were threatened by AMI’s attorneys.”</font></p><p data-elm-loc="12" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Beast didn’t describe the threats in more detail, and AMI has yet to respond to their report. On Tuesday, The Post’s Marc Fisher, Manuel Roig-Franzia and Sarah Ellison&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/was-tabloid-expose-of-bezos-affair-just-juicy-gossip-or-a-political-hit-job/2019/02/05/03d2f716-2633-11e9-90cd-dedb0c92dc17_story.html?utm_term=.8476526720f1" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">reported&nbsp;</a>the following:</font></p><blockquote class="citation blockquote" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 35px auto; padding: 0px 35px; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 6px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-image: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; quotes: none;"><p data-elm-loc="13" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Documents obtained by The Post show that attorneys for American Media sought to persuade the Daily Beast not to publish its initial report suggesting that Trump’s allies may have been involved in the effort to expose the Bezos affair. According to a draft legal complaint, Enquirer attorneys threatened to sue the Daily Beast if it used any information provided by a former Enquirer executive who had been hired by the website.</font></p><p data-elm-loc="13" class="attribution" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 18px 0px -10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;" /></font></p></blockquote><p data-elm-loc="14" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is not the first time journalists have had brushes with the media company.</font></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></p><p data-elm-loc="15" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/donald-trump-is-not-well/2017/06/30/97759ee0-5d0f-11e7-9b7d-14576dc0f39d_story.html?utm_term=.90570f8bff31" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">2017 op-ed for The Post,</a>&nbsp;“Morning Joe” hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough claimed that “top White House staff members warned that the National Enquirer was planning to publish a negative article about us unless we begged the president to have the story spiked.”</font></strong></strong></strong></p><p data-elm-loc="16" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We ignored their desperate pleas,” the hosts wrote. The piece caused a media uproar.</font></strong></strong></strong></p><p data-elm-loc="17" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mediaite.com/tv/its-blackmail-joe-and-mika-reveal-how-white-house-threatened-them-with-national-enquirer/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">provided more details&nbsp;</a>on their show that day. “We got a call that hey, the National Enquirer is going to run a negative story against you guys,” Scarborough said. He claimed “three people at the very top of the administration” called him and told him “if you call the president up, and you apologize for your coverage, then he will pick up the phone and basically spike this story.”</font></strong></strong></strong></p><p data-elm-loc="18" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Brzezinski added that the National Enquirer was “calling my children, they were calling close friends.”</font></strong></strong></strong></p><p data-elm-loc="19" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/gabrielsherman/status/880768544862072832" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">said&nbsp;</a>he was “not aware” of any such threats or requests made by White House staffers, and Trump&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/880771685460344832" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">tweeted&nbsp;</a>that the hosts’ claim was “FAKE NEWS.”</font></strong></strong></strong></p><p data-elm-loc="20" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scarborough&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/JoeNBC/status/880773499408797697" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">replied</a>&nbsp;to the president that he had “texts for your top aides and phone records” to back up his claim.</font></strong></strong></strong></p><p data-elm-loc="21" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The National Enquirer<a href="https://money.cnn.com/2017/06/30/media/national-enquirer-mika-brzezinski-joe-scarborough-article/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">&nbsp;published an article about Brzezinski and Scarborough earlier that month</a>with salacious details about their relationship, and that noted their contentious relationship with Trump. In a statement to CNN, the Enquirer said: “At the beginning of June we accurately reported a story that recounted the relationship between Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, the truth of which is not in dispute. At no time did we threaten either Joe or Mika or their children in connection with our reporting on the story. We have no knowledge of any discussions between the White House and Joe and Mika about our story, and absolutely no involvement in those discussions.”</font></strong></strong></strong></p><p data-elm-loc="22" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Thursday, Bezos wrote on Medium that he launched an investigation into the Enquirer after it published an article, complete with text messages, that revealed his relationship with former TV anchor Lauren Sanchez. The investigation is an attempt to figure out how Bezos’s private information was leaked. In an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/was-tabloid-expose-of-bezos-affair-just-juicy-gossip-or-a-political-hit-job/2019/02/05/03d2f716-2633-11e9-90cd-dedb0c92dc17_story.html?utm_term=.f4e1576b5fc1" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">interview&nbsp;</a>with The Post earlier this week, Bezos’s security consultant Gavin de Becker said the Enquirer article came from a “politically motivated” leak intended to embarrass Bezos.</font></strong></strong></strong></p><p data-elm-loc="23" class="interstitial-link " style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">[<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/02/08/hes-studied-thousands-threatening-letters-now-hes-center-bezoss-blackmail-claims-against-tabloid/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">Gavin de Becker, Bezos’s security consultant, has spent years studying celebrity threats</a>]</font></span></strong></strong></strong></p><p data-elm-loc="24" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In his post, Bezos cited emails that he said were from AMI officials, including the company’s chief content officer Dylan Howard, and alleged that the tabloid wanted him and de Becker to make a false public statement that they “have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AMI’s coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces.”</font></strong></strong></strong></p><p data-elm-loc="25" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Friday,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/american-media-llc-response-to-statement-by-jeff-bezos-300792328.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">American Media, LLC released a statement</a>&nbsp;that it “believes fervently that it acted lawfully in the reporting of the story of Mr. Bezos. Further, at the time of the recent allegations made by Mr. Bezos, it was in good faith negotiations to resolve all matters with him."</font></strong></strong></strong></p><p data-elm-loc="26" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the statement continues: "Nonetheless, in light of the nature of the allegations published by Mr. Bezos, the Board has convened and determined that it should promptly and thoroughly investigate the claims. Upon completion of that investigation, the Board will take whatever appropriate action is necessary.”</font></strong></strong></strong></p><p data-elm-loc="27" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Howard also played a notable role in the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault scandal. In November 2017, Farrow published an article in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/harvey-weinsteins-army-of-spies" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">the New Yorker referencing emails between Howard and Weinstein</a>&nbsp;discussing efforts to dig up dirt on Rose McGowan, one of the first actresses to accuse the Hollywood producer of sexual assault.</font></strong></strong></strong></p><p data-elm-loc="28" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The New York Times also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/05/us/harvey-weinstein-complicity.html?smid=tw-share" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">reported</a>&nbsp;in 2017 that Harvey Weinstein unsuccessfully attempted to enlist Howard in preventing the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/us/harvey-weinstein-harassment-allegations.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">bombshell investigation</a>&nbsp;into his history of sexual assault and harassment.</font></strong></strong></strong></p><blockquote class="citation blockquote" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 35px auto; padding: 0px 35px; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 6px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-image: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; quotes: none;"><p data-elm-loc="29" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The day before The Times published its article [that] fall, Mr. Weinstein was planning to make his last defense. He wrote an urgent email to Mr. Howard, instructing him to meet outside the newspaper’s headquarters in Manhattan. American Media said that Mr. Howard did not show.</font></strong></strong></strong></p><p data-elm-loc="29" class="attribution" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 18px 0px -10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;" /></font></strong></strong></strong></p></blockquote><p data-elm-loc="30" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The emails shared by Bezos appeared to show Enquirer executives threatening to publish a series of revealing photos of him and Sanchez if the demands were not met.</font></strong></strong></strong></strong></strong></p><p data-elm-loc="31" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bezos and Farrow both said they did not bend to the alleged threats, but Bezos noted that his investigation revealed that many others had. On Medium, Bezos wrote that “numerous people have contacted our investigation team about their similar experiences with AMI, and how they needed to capitulate because, for example, their livelihoods were at stake."</font></strong></strong></strong></p><p data-elm-loc="31" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><span class="powa-tease franklin-light" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[vid]</font></span></strong></strong></strong></p><p data-elm-loc="31" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="powa-tease franklin-light" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Washington Post’s Carol D. Leonnig reports that the National Enquirer in 2015 paid a source who claimed to know an embarrassing rumor about President Trump.</span>&nbsp;<span class="powa-byline franklin-light" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">(Video: Bastien Inzaurralde/Photo: Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)</span></font></strong></strong></strong></p><p data-elm-loc="33" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The relationship between the Enquirer and Trump has been repeatedly scrutinized by the media, given the president’s long friendship with AMI chief executive David Pecker. Beyond Pecker’s directing the Enquirer to publish favorable articles about Trump in 2016, AMI&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/publisher-of-the-national-enquirer-admits-to-hush-money-payments-made-on-trumps-behalf/2018/12/12/ebf24b76-fe49-11e8-83c0-b06139e540e5_story.html?utm_term=.b5297f701ea2" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">admitted last year to paying $150,000 in hush money</a>&nbsp;to Karen McDougal, a woman who allegedly had an affair with Trump, to prevent her story from “influencing the election.” Federal prosecutors in December announced an agreement with AMI that they would not prosecute the company for its role in attempting to skew the race in Trump’s favor if it cooperated and admitted to paying off the woman.</font></strong></strong></strong></p><p data-elm-loc="34" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If Bezos’s allegations are accurate, AMI may be in violation of the non-prosecution agreement, which is in part contingent upon the company not committing any crimes, The Post&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/2019/02/07/f501d20c-2b2d-11e9-b2fc-721718903bfc_story.html?utm_term=.b9e2e9e31b91" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">reported</a>Thursday.</font></strong></strong></strong></p><p data-elm-loc="35" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">More from Morning Mix:</font></b></strong></strong></strong></p><p><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></strong></strong></strong></p><p data-elm-loc="36" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: calc(1.5em + 0.3333vw);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/02/08/hes-studied-thousands-threatening-letters-now-hes-center-bezoss-blackmail-claims-against-tabloid/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">He’s studied thousands of threatening letters. Now he’s at the center of Bezos’s blackmail claims against a tabloid.</font></a></font></strong></strong></font></strong></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/ronan-farrow-says-he-and-other-journalists-got-national-enquirer-blackmail-threats-related-to-trump-reporting/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/ronan-farrow-says-he-and-other-journalists-got-national-enquirer-blackmail-threats-related-to-trump-reporting/</a></font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Ronand Farrow and at least one other journalist have allegedly received blackmail threats from the National Enquirer after reporting on the tabloid and President Donald Trump.</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Farrow revealed the threats Thursday evening after Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos published emails from the tabloid threatening to publish explicit photos taken from his phone if the Washington Post, which he also owns, did not stop investigating the publication, the Post reported.</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Ronan Farrow</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">?</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">@RonanFarrow</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;I and at least one other prominent journalist involved in breaking stories about the National Enquirer’s arrangement with Trump fielded similar “stop digging or we’ll ruin you” blackmail efforts from AMI. (I did not engage as I don’t cut deals with subjects of ongoing reporting.)</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Jeff Bezos</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">?</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">@JeffBezos</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">I’ve written a post about developments with the National Enquirer and its parent company, AMI. You can find it here: https://medium.com/@jeffreypbezos/no-thank-you-mr-pecker-146e3922310f …</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">37.4K</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">5:57 PM - Feb 7, 2019</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">12.2K people are talking about this</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Farrow published a story in April about the Enquirer‘s “catch and kill” practice,” which involves paying off sources and then burying the stories, that helped Trump during his 2016 campaign.</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">SPONSORED</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Former Associated Press editor Ted Bridis also tweeted that the media organization had been warned that AMI, the Enquirer’s publisher, hired private investigators to target AP reporters looking into their efforts to help Trump, although he never saw evidence this took place.</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The Daily Beast reported that attorneys for AMI aggressively responded, including unspecified threats, to two stories published last week about Bezos and the Enquirer.</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The Post obtained documents that show AMI attorneys tried to pressure The Daily Beast not to publish reports suggesting that Trump’s allies were involved in efforts to reveal the Bezos affair.</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The tabloid threatened to sue if the website used any material from a former Enquirer executive who has been hired by the website.</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Bezos shared threatening emails purportedly from AMI officials, including chief content officer Dylan Howard, who also played a notable role in the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault scandal.</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font></strong></strong></font></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Farrow helped break the Weinstein story into widespread circulation in November 2017.</font></font></font></font></strong></strong></font></font></strong></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></strong></strong></strong></p><p><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></strong></strong></strong></p><p><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/the-washington-posts-three-pinocchios-for-aoc-shows-how-incoherent-mainstream-fact-checking-really-is/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/the-washington-posts-three-pinocchios-for-aoc-shows-how-incoherent-mainstream-fact-checking-really-is/</a></font></font></font></strong></strong></strong></p><div class="header-standard header-classic single-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Washington Post's "three Pinocchios" for AOC shows how incoherent mainstream "fact-checking" really is.</font></font></font></strong></strong></strong></h3><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 1px;" /></div><div class="post-entry blockquote-style-2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 75px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="inner-post-entry entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background: rgb(245, 245, 245); border: none !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">A truth that’s told with bad intent</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Beats any lie you can invent</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />– William Blake, “Auguries of Innocence”</font></font></font></strong></strong></strong></p><div class="p1_28" style="font-style: italic; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fact-checking political discourse is noble in theory, but it can easily go wrong. That’s what happened in 2011, when&nbsp;<a href="https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2011/dec/20/lie-year-democrats-claims-republicans-voted-end-me/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">PolitiFact’s “Lie of the Year”</a>&nbsp;— the claim that Republicans wanted to end Medicare — was actually true, as&nbsp;<a href="https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/20/politifact-r-i-p/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Paul Krugman</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_12/politifact_ought_to_be_ashamed034211.php" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Steve Bennen</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120119003534/http:/markpaul.calepin.co/PolitiFact-lie.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">others pointed out</a>. Writing for the Columbia Journalism Review,&nbsp;<a href="https://archives.cjr.org/campaign_desk/what_the_fact-checkers_get_wro.php" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Greg Marx summarized the problem with PolitiFact’s “reasoning”</a>:</font></font></font></strong></strong></strong></p><div class="advertisement " style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="teadsNative" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background: rgb(245, 245, 245); border: none !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">You can’t report your way to the conclusion that it’s okay to say,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nationaljournal.com/2012-presidential-campaign/romney-continues-using-ryan-budget-against-gingrich-20111209" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">as leading Republican Mitt Romney has</a>, that the GOP plan will “fundamentally transform Medicare,” and basically okay to say, as President Obama has, that the plan would “<a href="https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/apr/20/democratic-congressional-campaign-committee/democrats-say-republicans-voted-end-medicare-and-c/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">end Medicare as we know it</a>,” but that it’s an egregious falsehood to simply say it would “end Medicare.”</font></font></font></strong></strong></strong></p><div class="p3_28" style="font-style: italic; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The problem with “fact-checking” was much bigger than this one spectacular misfire. As Marx noted, most&nbsp;articles in the genre “actually contain&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">counterarguments&nbsp;</i>— many of which are solid, some shoddy or tendentious, but few of which really fit in a ‘fact-check’ frame.” Such articles are engaged in “patrolling public discourse,” he continued, a project that “will inevitably involve judgments not only about truth, but about what attacks are fair, what arguments are reasonable, what language is appropriate.”</font></font></font></strong></strong></strong></p><div class="p4_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If that was problematic in 2011, welcome to 2019, as fact-checkers have homed in on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., face of the progressive resistance, while Donald Trump is burning down their house.</font></font></font></strong></strong></strong></p><div class="p5_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It happened again last week, when Washington Post fact-checker&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/24/ocasio-cortezs-misfired-facts-living-wage-minimum-wage/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Glenn Kessler gave AOC “three Pinocchios”</a>&nbsp;for comments she made about economic justice, echoing Dr. Martin Luther King, at an event honoring his birthday. Kessler ignored the context of her argument and picked out four claims, three of which he deemed false. But Kessler actually confirmed one of those without realizing it, while another was purely semantic and the third was at worst debatable, not a clearcut falsehood. If anything, Matt Bruenig’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/01/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-fact-check-kessler" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">detailed attack</a>&nbsp;on Kessler’s analysis for Jacobin made it seem more substantial than it actually was.</font></font></font></strong></strong></strong></p><div class="p6_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></strong></strong></font></strong><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">In part, fact-checkers are always seeking a false balance — as PolitiFact was doing in 2011, after twice awarding its “Lie of the Year” to Republican falsehoods about Obamacare — in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/dec/18/politifact-lie-year-death-panels/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">2009 for “death panels,”</a>&nbsp;and in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2010/dec/16/lie-year-government-takeover-health-care/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">2010 for calling it a “government takeover</a>.” Now the Post Fact Checker’s database has tallied&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/21/president-trump-made-false-or-misleading-claims-his-first-two-years/?utm_term=.493c5da5901f" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">8,158 false or misleading claims</a>&nbsp;made by Trump in his first two years as president, so its team feels obliged to ding Democrats as well.</strong></strong></font></strong></p><div class="p7_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But there’s something more complex happening here too, that’s probably best understood in terms of press scholar Daniel Hallin’s&nbsp;<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=dDQ0ScuSqNAC&pg=PA117&lpg=PA117&dq=sphere+of+legitimate+controversy&source=web&ots=SM5JzgByDk&sig=-Z_zvue3rT1PfuyNs8ulCR0S9Xw&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">three-sphere model</a>&nbsp;of how the media functions, from his 1986 book&nbsp;<a href="https://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/HistoryAmerican/Since1945//c2Y9YWxsJnNzPWF1dGhvci5hc2Mmc2Q9YXNjJnBmPTcwJnZpZXc9dXNhJnByPTEwJmJvb2tDb3ZlcnM9eWVzJmNpPTAxOTUwMzgxNDI=" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">The Uncensored War</a>. At the center is the sphere of consensus, mom-and-apple-pie country. Surrounding that, like a donut, is the sphere of legitimate debate, where journalists’ attention is usually focused, where there are two sides to every story and a need for objectivity and balance to be maintained.</font></p><div class="p8_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Beyond that, though, is the sphere of deviance, the outer darkness in which dwell “political actors and views which journalists and the political mainstream of society reject as unworthy of being heard.” The shoddy fact-checking directed at Ocasio-Cortez reflects a boundary-policing instinct, and an outdated one, considering that the entire political landscape has been irrevocably changed.</font></p><div class="p9_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To understand how shoddy it is — and the unspoken agenda involved — we need to take a closer look at the totality of what went down. Kessler was quoting from a snippet of&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/waleedshahid/status/1087744533591482369" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">AOC’s response to a question by Ta-Nehisi Coates</a>&nbsp;in an MLK Day interview. The context is important, because context is everything in political discourse: What’s radical in one context is mom-and-apple-pie material in another.</font></p><div class="p10_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">King, paradoxically, is both. The question asked and the answer given were both in King’s spirit — but not the mom-and-apple-pie version of him the media (and much of America) loves to celebrate. It more reflected the actual, radical Martin Luther King Jr., who&nbsp;<a href="https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">spoke out</a>&nbsp;against the “the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism,” and said, “True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”</font></p><div class="p11_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">exactly</i>&nbsp;what Coates asked about in asking, “Do we live in a moral world that allows for billionaires? Is that a moral outcome?” Ocasio-Cortez answered, “No it’s not,” with an immediate clarification: “I think it’s important to say that I don’t think that necessarily means that all billionaires are immoral. It is not to say that someone like Bill Gates, for instance, for example, Warren Buffett are immoral people, I do not believe that.” Contrary to a favorite media trope, she’s&nbsp;not&nbsp;demonizing the wealthy just as Republicans demonize the poor. Then she returned to core King mode:</font></p><div class="p12_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background: rgb(245, 245, 245); border: none !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But I do think a system that allows billionaires to exist when there are parts of Alabama where people are still getting ringworm because they don’t have access to public health is wrong. And&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">I think it’s wrong that [1] a vast majority of the country doesn’t make a living wage, I think it’s wrong that [2] you can work 100 hours and not feed your kids. I think it’s wrong that [3] corporations like Walmart and Amazon can get paid by the government, essentially experience a wealth transfer from the public, [4] for paying people less than a minimum wage.</i>&nbsp;And it not only doesn’t make economic sense, but it doesn’t make moral sense and it doesn’t make societal sense.</font></p><div class="p13_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The section of that passage in italics is what Kessler chose to fact-check, broken into four parts (indicated in brackets). He awarded her “three Pinocchios,” which the fact-check guide explains as “significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions. This gets into the realm of ‘mostly false.’ But it could include statements which are technically correct (such as based on official government data) but are so taken out of context as to be very misleading.”</font></p><div class="p14_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here, however, the situation is the&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">opposite</i>: even if some of AOC’s statements were technically incorrect — if she&nbsp;were&nbsp;wrong in the ways Kessler claimed —&nbsp;that wouldn’t necessarily invalidate her<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">moral argument</i>. That would require an error or contradiction in her&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">moral</i>&nbsp;reasoning — about which Kessler has nothing to say.</font></p><div class="p15_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kessler admitted that claim No. 2 was correct — in fact, it could be 135 hours, he said. But what of the other three claims? Ocasio-Cortez claimed that “a vast majority of the country doesn’t make a living wage,” while Kessler claimed the figure was “only” “about 32 to 38 percent of workers,” relying on calculations based on the&nbsp;<a href="https://livingwage.mit.edu/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">MIT Living Wage calculato</a>r. Even if he’s right, that’s still morally outrageous, and serves to support her larger argument.</font></p><div class="p16_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">She claimed that Walmart and Amazon “experience a wealth transfer from the public,” and Kessler argued that only amounted to “between&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.2.1.177" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">20-30 percent of the benefits</a>,”&nbsp;essentially<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">&nbsp;confirming&nbsp;</i>what she had claimed.&nbsp;Ocasio-Cortez said such companies were “paying people less than<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">&nbsp;a&nbsp;</i>minimum wage,” which was likely a simple misstatement. Kessler responded that they paid more than&nbsp;the<em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">minimum</em>&nbsp;wage — but not more than a&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">living&nbsp;</i>wage,&nbsp;which was clearly the intended focus of her remarks.</font></p><div class="p17_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So even if Kessler were right on every factual point, and Bruenig and AOC were wrong, her&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">argument</i>would still stand. If fewer people earn below less than a living wage than she stated, then arguably the situation is less dire than she described — but it’s not radically different. Furthermore, MIT’s “living wage”&nbsp;isn’t&nbsp;the last word on that subject. It’s an admirable measure, but it’s a “surviving wage,” not a “thriving wage.” A true living wage would mean more than simply surviving from paycheck to paycheck. It would mean the ability to build a future for oneself and one’s family. Here’s&nbsp;<a href="https://livingwage.mit.edu/articles/36-new-data-up-calculation-of-the-living-wage" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">how the MIT Living Wage website puts it</a>:</font></p><div class="p18_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background: rgb(245, 245, 245); border: none !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">When coupled with lowered expenses</i>, for childcare and housing in particular, the living wage might also free up resources for savings, investment, and/or for the purchase of capital assets (e.g. provisions for retirement or home purchases) that build wealth and ensure long-term financial security.</font></p><div class="p19_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In short,&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">without lowered expenses</i>&nbsp;the MIT living wage does&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">not</i>&nbsp;allow people to thrive — as Ocasio-Cortez knows from her own lived experience. So she was well justified in having a higher standard in mind. The flood of hardship stories from the recent government shutdown should make it obvious how precarious most middle-class families are, and how many of them fall between the MIT living wage and what a truly thriving living wage would be.</font></p><div class="p20_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So,&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">read in context,&nbsp;</i>everything AOC said was true,&nbsp;even if we accept Kessler’s factual counterclaims!&nbsp;The entire fact-checking ritual was a charade. As I suggested earlier, it was really a boundary-policing episode, meant to keep her “radical” ideas outside the sphere of legitimate debate by portraying her as untrustworthy. Further, it was meant&nbsp;to deter others from similar infractions while trying to break through the barriers excluding them from legitimacy. (See AOC’s related Twitter thread on “gravitas”&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1087093156397678593" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">here</a>.)</font></p><div class="p21_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the problem is that Kessler’s implied boundaries are not worth policing, or even recognizing. The whole system is in crisis, and the mainstream media’s assessment of what is deviant, what reflects normative consensus and what represents legitimate debate bears little or no relationship to reality. Take two other examples AOC has been associated with — raising top marginal tax rates to 70 percent and a Green New Deal. The first idea drew immediate majority support — 59 percent in a&nbsp;<a href="https://thehill.com/hilltv/what-americas-thinking/425422-a-majority-of-americans-support-raising-the-top-tax-rate-to-70" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">poll for the Hill</a>, including 56 percent of rural voters and 45 percent of Republicans—and scorn from the 1 percent at Davos.</font></p><div class="p22_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell laughed at the idea (<a href="https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1088154452132052994" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">video here)</a>, and said he thought it would be bad for economic growth. “Name a country where that’s worked,” he responded. “Ever.” Sitting there with him was MIT economist Erik Brynjolfsson, who supplied the example: the United States, throughout most of its post-World War II expansion. It was a rare, Marshall McLuhan-in-“Annie Hall” moment. Usually, when the super-rich or their sycophants spout off like that, truth does not intrude. Certainly not from the fact-checking media.</font></p><div class="p23_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the media’s failure is even more striking when it comes to climate change and the Green New Deal. It’s still a rarity for the media to treat climate science as firmly within the sphere of consensus, where all reputable researchers say it belongs. As far back as 2004,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959378003000669?via%3Dihub" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">a study found</a>&nbsp;that “US prestige-press coverage of global warming from 1988 to 2002 has contributed to a significant divergence of popular discourse from scientific discourse,” and that “the prestige press’s adherence to balance actually leads to biased coverage of both anthropogenic contributions to global warming and resultant action.”</font></p><div class="p24_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Four years later, just after the financial crisis hit,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10102008/transcript4.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">George Soros told Bill Moyers</a>&nbsp;that something akin to AOC’s Green New Deal was needed, to respond both to global warming&nbsp;and&nbsp;the financial collapse:</font></p><div class="p25_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background: rgb(245, 245, 245); border: none !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For the last 25 years … the motor of the world economy that has been driving it was consumption by the American consumer, who has been spending more than he has been saving, all right? Than he’s been producing. So that motor is now switched off. It’s finished. … You need a new motor. And we have a big problem. Global warming. It requires big investment. And that could be the motor of the world economy in the years to come.</font></i></p><div class="p26_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For all Soros’ supposed power, you’ve probably never heard that idea. It remained on the fringes, if not beyond the fringe in the sphere of deviancy. But if that prescription had been followed, rather than the austerity economics that took over after 2010, we’d be living in a radically different and more hopeful world today.</font></p><div class="p27_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ocasio-Cortez’s ideas — on marginal tax rates, a Green New Deal&nbsp; and economic justice — are only deviant in a media system that’s utterly divorced from reality. That’s why it would be a serious mistake to view her in isolation. The intellectual incoherence of “fact-checking” poses a serious threat to Democrats and progressives — and to democracy itself — through the 2020 election, at least. The sooner we all wake up to that, and respond to it, the better.</font></p></div></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/the-washington-posts-three-pinocchios-for-aoc-shows-how-incoherent-mainstream-fact-checking-really-is/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/the-washington-posts-three-pinocchios-for-aoc-shows-how-incoherent-mainstream-fact-checking-really-is/</font></a></p><div class="header-standard header-classic single-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Washington Post's "three Pinocchios" for AOC shows how incoherent mainstream "fact-checking" really is.</font></h3><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 1px;" /></div><div class="post-entry blockquote-style-2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 75px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="inner-post-entry entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background: rgb(245, 245, 245); border: none !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">A truth that’s told with bad intent</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Beats any lie you can invent</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />– William Blake, “Auguries of Innocence”</font></p><div class="p1_28" style="font-style: italic; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fact-checking political discourse is noble in theory, but it can easily go wrong. That’s what happened in 2011, when&nbsp;<a href="https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2011/dec/20/lie-year-democrats-claims-republicans-voted-end-me/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">PolitiFact’s “Lie of the Year”</a>&nbsp;— the claim that Republicans wanted to end Medicare — was actually true, as&nbsp;<a href="https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/20/politifact-r-i-p/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Paul Krugman</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_12/politifact_ought_to_be_ashamed034211.php" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Steve Bennen</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120119003534/http:/markpaul.calepin.co/PolitiFact-lie.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">others pointed out</a>. Writing for the Columbia Journalism Review,&nbsp;<a href="https://archives.cjr.org/campaign_desk/what_the_fact-checkers_get_wro.php" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Greg Marx summarized the problem with PolitiFact’s “reasoning”</a>:</font></p><div class="advertisement " style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="teadsNative" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background: rgb(245, 245, 245); border: none !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">You can’t report your way to the conclusion that it’s okay to say,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nationaljournal.com/2012-presidential-campaign/romney-continues-using-ryan-budget-against-gingrich-20111209" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">as leading Republican Mitt Romney has</a>, that the GOP plan will “fundamentally transform Medicare,” and basically okay to say, as President Obama has, that the plan would “<a href="https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/apr/20/democratic-congressional-campaign-committee/democrats-say-republicans-voted-end-medicare-and-c/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">end Medicare as we know it</a>,” but that it’s an egregious falsehood to simply say it would “end Medicare.”</font></p><div class="p3_28" style="font-style: italic; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The problem with “fact-checking” was much bigger than this one spectacular misfire. As Marx noted, most&nbsp;articles in the genre “actually contain&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">counterarguments&nbsp;</i>— many of which are solid, some shoddy or tendentious, but few of which really fit in a ‘fact-check’ frame.” Such articles are engaged in “patrolling public discourse,” he continued, a project that “will inevitably involve judgments not only about truth, but about what attacks are fair, what arguments are reasonable, what language is appropriate.”</font></p><div class="p4_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If that was problematic in 2011, welcome to 2019, as fact-checkers have homed in on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., face of the progressive resistance, while Donald Trump is burning down their house.</font></p><div class="p5_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It happened again last week, when Washington Post fact-checker&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/24/ocasio-cortezs-misfired-facts-living-wage-minimum-wage/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Glenn Kessler gave AOC “three Pinocchios”</a>&nbsp;for comments she made about economic justice, echoing Dr. Martin Luther King, at an event honoring his birthday. Kessler ignored the context of her argument and picked out four claims, three of which he deemed false. But Kessler actually confirmed one of those without realizing it, while another was purely semantic and the third was at worst debatable, not a clearcut falsehood. If anything, Matt Bruenig’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/01/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-fact-check-kessler" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">detailed attack</a>&nbsp;on Kessler’s analysis for Jacobin made it seem more substantial than it actually was.</font></p><div class="p6_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></font><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In part, fact-checkers are always seeking a false balance — as PolitiFact was doing in 2011, after twice awarding its “Lie of the Year” to Republican falsehoods about Obamacare — in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/dec/18/politifact-lie-year-death-panels/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">2009 for “death panels,”</a>&nbsp;and in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2010/dec/16/lie-year-government-takeover-health-care/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">2010 for calling it a “government takeover</a>.” Now the Post Fact Checker’s database has tallied&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/21/president-trump-made-false-or-misleading-claims-his-first-two-years/?utm_term=.493c5da5901f" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">8,158 false or misleading claims</a>&nbsp;made by Trump in his first two years as president, so its team feels obliged to ding Democrats as well.</font></p><div class="p7_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But there’s something more complex happening here too, that’s probably best understood in terms of press scholar Daniel Hallin’s&nbsp;<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=dDQ0ScuSqNAC&pg=PA117&lpg=PA117&dq=sphere+of+legitimate+controversy&source=web&ots=SM5JzgByDk&sig=-Z_zvue3rT1PfuyNs8ulCR0S9Xw&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">three-sphere model</a>&nbsp;of how the media functions, from his 1986 book&nbsp;<a href="https://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/HistoryAmerican/Since1945//c2Y9YWxsJnNzPWF1dGhvci5hc2Mmc2Q9YXNjJnBmPTcwJnZpZXc9dXNhJnByPTEwJmJvb2tDb3ZlcnM9eWVzJmNpPTAxOTUwMzgxNDI=" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">The Uncensored War</a>. At the center is the sphere of consensus, mom-and-apple-pie country. Surrounding that, like a donut, is the sphere of legitimate debate, where journalists’ attention is usually focused, where there are two sides to every story and a need for objectivity and balance to be maintained.</font></p><div class="p8_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Beyond that, though, is the sphere of deviance, the outer darkness in which dwell “political actors and views which journalists and the political mainstream of society reject as unworthy of being heard.” The shoddy fact-checking directed at Ocasio-Cortez reflects a boundary-policing instinct, and an outdated one, considering that the entire political landscape has been irrevocably changed.</font></p><div class="p9_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To understand how shoddy it is — and the unspoken agenda involved — we need to take a closer look at the totality of what went down. Kessler was quoting from a snippet of&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/waleedshahid/status/1087744533591482369" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">AOC’s response to a question by Ta-Nehisi Coates</a>&nbsp;in an MLK Day interview. The context is important, because context is everything in political discourse: What’s radical in one context is mom-and-apple-pie material in another.</font></p><div class="p10_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">King, paradoxically, is both. The question asked and the answer given were both in King’s spirit — but not the mom-and-apple-pie version of him the media (and much of America) loves to celebrate. It more reflected the actual, radical Martin Luther King Jr., who&nbsp;<a href="https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">spoke out</a>&nbsp;against the “the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism,” and said, “True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”</font></p><div class="p11_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">exactly</i>&nbsp;what Coates asked about in asking, “Do we live in a moral world that allows for billionaires? Is that a moral outcome?” Ocasio-Cortez answered, “No it’s not,” with an immediate clarification: “I think it’s important to say that I don’t think that necessarily means that all billionaires are immoral. It is not to say that someone like Bill Gates, for instance, for example, Warren Buffett are immoral people, I do not believe that.” Contrary to a favorite media trope, she’s&nbsp;not&nbsp;demonizing the wealthy just as Republicans demonize the poor. Then she returned to core King mode:</font></p><div class="p12_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background: rgb(245, 245, 245); border: none !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But I do think a system that allows billionaires to exist when there are parts of Alabama where people are still getting ringworm because they don’t have access to public health is wrong. And&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">I think it’s wrong that [1] a vast majority of the country doesn’t make a living wage, I think it’s wrong that [2] you can work 100 hours and not feed your kids. I think it’s wrong that [3] corporations like Walmart and Amazon can get paid by the government, essentially experience a wealth transfer from the public, [4] for paying people less than a minimum wage.</i>&nbsp;And it not only doesn’t make economic sense, but it doesn’t make moral sense and it doesn’t make societal sense.</font></p><div class="p13_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The section of that passage in italics is what Kessler chose to fact-check, broken into four parts (indicated in brackets). He awarded her “three Pinocchios,” which the fact-check guide explains as “significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions. This gets into the realm of ‘mostly false.’ But it could include statements which are technically correct (such as based on official government data) but are so taken out of context as to be very misleading.”</font></p><div class="p14_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here, however, the situation is the&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">opposite</i>: even if some of AOC’s statements were technically incorrect — if she&nbsp;were&nbsp;wrong in the ways Kessler claimed —&nbsp;that wouldn’t necessarily invalidate her<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">moral argument</i>. That would require an error or contradiction in her&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">moral</i>&nbsp;reasoning — about which Kessler has nothing to say.</font></p><div class="p15_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kessler admitted that claim No. 2 was correct — in fact, it could be 135 hours, he said. But what of the other three claims? Ocasio-Cortez claimed that “a vast majority of the country doesn’t make a living wage,” while Kessler claimed the figure was “only” “about 32 to 38 percent of workers,” relying on calculations based on the&nbsp;<a href="https://livingwage.mit.edu/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">MIT Living Wage calculato</a>r. Even if he’s right, that’s still morally outrageous, and serves to support her larger argument.</font></p><div class="p16_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">She claimed that Walmart and Amazon “experience a wealth transfer from the public,” and Kessler argued that only amounted to “between&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.2.1.177" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">20-30 percent of the benefits</a>,”&nbsp;essentially<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">&nbsp;confirming&nbsp;</i>what she had claimed.&nbsp;Ocasio-Cortez said such companies were “paying people less than<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">&nbsp;a&nbsp;</i>minimum wage,” which was likely a simple misstatement. Kessler responded that they paid more than&nbsp;the<em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">minimum</em>&nbsp;wage — but not more than a&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">living&nbsp;</i>wage,&nbsp;which was clearly the intended focus of her remarks.</font></p><div class="p17_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So even if Kessler were right on every factual point, and Bruenig and AOC were wrong, her&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">argument</i>would still stand. If fewer people earn below less than a living wage than she stated, then arguably the situation is less dire than she described — but it’s not radically different. Furthermore, MIT’s “living wage”&nbsp;isn’t&nbsp;the last word on that subject. It’s an admirable measure, but it’s a “surviving wage,” not a “thriving wage.” A true living wage would mean more than simply surviving from paycheck to paycheck. It would mean the ability to build a future for oneself and one’s family. Here’s&nbsp;<a href="https://livingwage.mit.edu/articles/36-new-data-up-calculation-of-the-living-wage" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">how the MIT Living Wage website puts it</a>:</font></p><div class="p18_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background: rgb(245, 245, 245); border: none !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">When coupled with lowered expenses</i>, for childcare and housing in particular, the living wage might also free up resources for savings, investment, and/or for the purchase of capital assets (e.g. provisions for retirement or home purchases) that build wealth and ensure long-term financial security.</font></p><div class="p19_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In short,&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">without lowered expenses</i>&nbsp;the MIT living wage does&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">not</i>&nbsp;allow people to thrive — as Ocasio-Cortez knows from her own lived experience. So she was well justified in having a higher standard in mind. The flood of hardship stories from the recent government shutdown should make it obvious how precarious most middle-class families are, and how many of them fall between the MIT living wage and what a truly thriving living wage would be.</font></p><div class="p20_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So,&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">read in context,&nbsp;</i>everything AOC said was true,&nbsp;even if we accept Kessler’s factual counterclaims!&nbsp;The entire fact-checking ritual was a charade. As I suggested earlier, it was really a boundary-policing episode, meant to keep her “radical” ideas outside the sphere of legitimate debate by portraying her as untrustworthy. Further, it was meant&nbsp;to deter others from similar infractions while trying to break through the barriers excluding them from legitimacy. (See AOC’s related Twitter thread on “gravitas”&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1087093156397678593" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">here</a>.)</font></p><div class="p21_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the problem is that Kessler’s implied boundaries are not worth policing, or even recognizing. The whole system is in crisis, and the mainstream media’s assessment of what is deviant, what reflects normative consensus and what represents legitimate debate bears little or no relationship to reality. Take two other examples AOC has been associated with — raising top marginal tax rates to 70 percent and a Green New Deal. The first idea drew immediate majority support — 59 percent in a&nbsp;<a href="https://thehill.com/hilltv/what-americas-thinking/425422-a-majority-of-americans-support-raising-the-top-tax-rate-to-70" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">poll for the Hill</a>, including 56 percent of rural voters and 45 percent of Republicans—and scorn from the 1 percent at Davos.</font></p><div class="p22_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell laughed at the idea (<a href="https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1088154452132052994" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">video here)</a>, and said he thought it would be bad for economic growth. “Name a country where that’s worked,” he responded. “Ever.” Sitting there with him was MIT economist Erik Brynjolfsson, who supplied the example: the United States, throughout most of its post-World War II expansion. It was a rare, Marshall McLuhan-in-“Annie Hall” moment. Usually, when the super-rich or their sycophants spout off like that, truth does not intrude. Certainly not from the fact-checking media.</font></p><div class="p23_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the media’s failure is even more striking when it comes to climate change and the Green New Deal. It’s still a rarity for the media to treat climate science as firmly within the sphere of consensus, where all reputable researchers say it belongs. As far back as 2004,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959378003000669?via%3Dihub" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">a study found</a>&nbsp;that “US prestige-press coverage of global warming from 1988 to 2002 has contributed to a significant divergence of popular discourse from scientific discourse,” and that “the prestige press’s adherence to balance actually leads to biased coverage of both anthropogenic contributions to global warming and resultant action.”</font></p><div class="p24_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Four years later, just after the financial crisis hit,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10102008/transcript4.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">George Soros told Bill Moyers</a>&nbsp;that something akin to AOC’s Green New Deal was needed, to respond both to global warming&nbsp;and&nbsp;the financial collapse:</font></p><div class="p25_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background: rgb(245, 245, 245); border: none !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For the last 25 years … the motor of the world economy that has been driving it was consumption by the American consumer, who has been spending more than he has been saving, all right? Than he’s been producing. So that motor is now switched off. It’s finished. … You need a new motor. And we have a big problem. Global warming. It requires big investment. And that could be the motor of the world economy in the years to come.</font></i></p><div class="p26_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For all Soros’ supposed power, you’ve probably never heard that idea. It remained on the fringes, if not beyond the fringe in the sphere of deviancy. But if that prescription had been followed, rather than the austerity economics that took over after 2010, we’d be living in a radically different and more hopeful world today.</font></p><div class="p27_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ocasio-Cortez’s ideas — on marginal tax rates, a Green New Deal&nbsp; and economic justice — are only deviant in a media system that’s utterly divorced from reality. That’s why it would be a serious mistake to view her in isolation. The intellectual incoherence of “fact-checking” poses a serious threat to Democrats and progressives — and to democracy itself — through the 2020 election, at least. The sooner we all wake up to that, and respond to it, the better.</font></p></div></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">not a direct refutation? but&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NB diffeent facts:</font></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">say wages up</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-block-start: 1em; margin-block-end: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox Business host Stuart Varney appeared on&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Fox & Friends</em>&nbsp;to mislead viewers about economic growth under the Trump administration, claiming that, “wages [and] salaries are going up for the best increase in at least a decade,” and asserting that “<b>if </b>you have a skill that’s in demand … your wages, salaries are going up.”</font></p><div style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From the August 20 edition of Fox News’&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Fox & Friends</em>:</font></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"real cost of socialism" pix]</font></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/08/10/america-wage-growth-is-getting-wiped-out-entirely-by-inflation/?utm_term=.ab0b35201f03" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Washington Post</em></a>, however, any apparent increase in wages is being wiped out by a larger increase in inflation. Once inflation is taken into account, the average U.S. “real wage” is actually decreasing, falling to “$10.76 an hour last month, 2 cents down from where it was a year ago.” In addition to falling wage growth, workers must grapple with “with higher prices giving [them] less buying power than they had last summer,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/13/business/economy/wages-workers-profits.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">according</a>&nbsp;to&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">The New York Times</em>. The&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Times</em>&nbsp;also reported on the concerning&nbsp;<b>disparity between corporate profits and workers’ gains, noting, “Corporate profits have rarely swept up a bigger share of the nation’s wealth, and workers have rarely shared a smaller one.”</b></font></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-block-start: 1em; margin-block-end: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Varney’s claim that supposed wage growth is “the best increase in at least a decade” is misleading on two fronts:</b>&nbsp;Average wages have fallen over the past year once inflation is accounted for, and wage growth is increasing at a slower rate than in November 2016, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.frbatlanta.org/chcs/wage-growth-tracker.aspx?panel=1" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);">wage growth tracker</a>....</font></p></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 21px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 21px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/after-long-career-bailing-out-big-banks-obama-treasury-secretary-tim-geithner-now-runs-predatory" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/after-long-career-bailing-out-big-banks-obama-treasury-secretary-tim-geithner-now-runs-predatory</font></a></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">After a lengthy government career defined by his central role in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/secrets-and-lies-of-the-bailout-113270/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">bailing out predatory Wall Street banks</a>&nbsp;as former President Barack Obama's Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner appears to have found his&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/nomiprins/status/1013772088304459776" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">true calling</a>&nbsp;in the private sector, where he now heads a large financial institution that exploits the economic struggles of poor Americans for profit.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">As president of Warburg Pincus—a major New York private equity firm—Geithner helps manage a lucrative predatory lending outfit called Mariner Finance, which mass-mails loan checks to low-income Americans, hides exorbitant interest rates in the fine print, and quickly sues those who fail to repay the loan and interest in time, according to a detailed&nbsp;<em>Washington Post</em>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/a-way-of-monetizing-poor-people-how-private-equity-firms-make-money-offering-loans-to-cash-strapped-americans/2018/07/01/5f7e2670-5dee-11e8-9ee3-49d6d4814c4c_story.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">report</a>&nbsp;published late Sunday.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"It's basically a way of monetizing poor people," John Lafferty, who worked as a manager trainee at a Mariner Finance branch in Nashville, told the&nbsp;<em>Post</em>. "Maybe at the beginning, people thought these loans could help people pay their electric bill. But it has become a cash cow.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Part of the burgeoning "consumer installment" industry—which consists of firms that offer slightly larger loans than payday lenders—Mariner Finance has hundreds of thousands of customers who, often in desparation, use the loans to cover soaring medical costs, home repairs, and other urgent expenses.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Given that in our "<a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/10/27/new-gilded-age-reaches-new-heights-worlds-billionaires-owning-staggering-6-trillion" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">new gilded age</a>" 40 percent of Americans&nbsp;<a href="https://money.cnn.com/2018/05/22/pf/emergency-expenses-household-finances/index.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">can't afford a $400 emergency payment</a>, the market for predatory lenders like Mariner Finance is vast and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/15/for-the-biggest-group-of-american-workers-wages-arent-just-flat-theyre-falling/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">growing</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"This industry is a pipeline to transfer money from the poor to the ultra-rich," Ben Wikler, Washington director of MoveOn.org, wrote in response to the&nbsp;<em>Post</em>'s report on Sunday. "Obama's treasury secretary Tim Geithner is president of one of the private equity firms making a killing from it. Your economy, rigged to redistribute wealth to the top."</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;" /><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;" /><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After Williams fell behind on her payments, Mariner sued and "won court judgment against her in April for $3,852, including $632 in fees for Mariner's attorney.""Within a few months, Mariner suggested she borrow another $500, and she did," the&nbsp;<em>Post</em>&nbsp;reports. "She paid more than $350 for fees and insurance on the loan, according to the loan documents. The interest rate was 30 percent."</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Reacting to the&nbsp;<em>Post</em>'s reporting—which also revealed how Mariner harasses customers and their relatives with phone calls if they're late on payments—Splinter's Libby Watson&nbsp;<a href="https://splinternews.com/tim-geithner-is-living-his-best-post-obama-life-by-runn-1827285288" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">wrote</a>: "In a just world, Geithner would be shamed out of society and forced to beg for scraps after a story like this was published. Instead, he'll keep making millions—while people like Barbara Williams are forced to take out predatory loans to pay their hospital bills." While Mariner refused to say how many loan checks it mails out to vulnerable Americans, the&nbsp;<em>Post</em>&nbsp;estimates that "the number is probably in the millions"—meaning there are likely countless others with stories similar to Williams'.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;"Were there a few loans that actually helped people? Yes," concluded an anonymous former branch manager in an interview with the&nbsp;<em>Post</em>. "Were 80 percent of them predatory? Probably."&nbsp;</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>