We’ve been asked several times by readers what ‘Fake News’ actually is. Over the weekend, I was asked by a friend to give my definition of it. Fake News can be described in many ways, but I think the best way to explain what it is would be to mention specific examples.
Fake News is not new, as most longtime South Bostonians can attest to. This town was under constant attack by mainstream news media outlets for many years. Reporters and editorialists opposed to the political leanings of most locals here would slant their coverage of stories. They did so in such a way as to deliberately make this community look backward, out of touch and of course racist at every opportunity when they disagreed with our elected officials and neighborhood leaders on the issues of the day. But a good example of Fake News took place in Dallas, Texas last weekend at the 147th Annual National Rifle Association (NRA) Leadership Forum and Convention.
Hollywood activists and airheads, led by Allysa Milano, had been organizing for weeks to hold a protest of the NRA convention nearby. And so, they did. Milano and other actresses and actors arrived at their designated protest area with stages, sound systems and banners. They predicted that tens of thousands of anti-NRA demonstrators would turn out because their egos allowed them to believe that they are worshipped by the public, therefore the number of supporters would be massive.
True to form, the news media was on hand and described the anti-NRA turnout as being ‘huge’, while reporting the number of NRA supporters in attendance at the convention as just ‘fairly large’. This was the slant the press was pushing all weekend. But that was before Dallas officials gave an estimated crowd count of the Hollywood gathering and the precise count of those attending the NRA event obtained by actual ticket sales and computer count was announced. The official estimated count for the protesters outside was under 400. The exact count of NRA supporters was 86,154. When both those counts were confirmed, the media; without even an apology or an ‘oops, you caught us lying again’, quietly let their crowd size story drop and go dark. It’s what they do and it’s why their credibility is gone, probably never to be regained and it’s why the approval rating of the media is even lower than that of Congress.
But while Allysa Milano didn’t get the crowd she felt she deserved, she did get called out for another reason – her hypocrisy. She likes to think of herself as spearheading the movement that’s trying to gut the Second Amendment of Americans as she demands that law abiding citizens have their right to own firearms for sport and self-protection restricted. And yet, there she was at her rally, surrounded by her body guards and security detail that were armed with, you guessed it – guns. Because, just like so many other Hollywood phonies and liberal politicians who insist that everyday Americans not have the right to protect family, self and home with firearms, they are themselves well protected by gated communities and armed body guards. Their motto should be ‘Guns for me but not for thee’.
On to another topic with more than just hints of hypocrisy, the NFL may soon make it official that it will allow individual teams that make up the league to decide how they will handle National Anthem protests next season. These protests have caused the NFL to lose a ton of support and it’s got them scared. Here again, there are vocal activists who praise and support the actions of Colin Kaepernick and his followers when they kneel in protest during the playing of our Anthem. Many of these activists think it’s a beautiful thing. In response, the popular FOX News channel star Judge Jeanine Pirro had this to say about it. “The same liberal activists, who want to protect the right of Colin Kaepernick to symbolically reject America by taking a knee, were the same ones quick to criticize Tim Tebow for bending a knee to pray and thank God on the field.” Judge Jeanine, as always, scores a direct hit with her comments.
