 |
Washington Post thumps Trump. After running a well regarded investigative series about the Jan. 6 assault on the US Capitol, the DC Post decided to avoid the fate of the Wall Street Journal by not running Donald Trump’s “response.”
The Post's series reported that Trump, his legal team and political allies pushed misleading claims about electoral fraud that led to the rioting.
The WSJ on Oct. 27 ran Trump’s letter complaining about its Oct. 25 editorial that was slugged “The Election for Pennsylvania’s High Court.”
Trump’s 600-word broadside was packed with lies and misinformation pertaining to the “rigged election.”
In its editorial, the WSJ noted that Joe Biden beat Trump by 80,555 votes in Keystone State.
To which, Trump responded: “Well actually, the election was rigged, which you, unfortunately, still haven’t figured out.” He then served up bullet points of nonsensical claims about how the election was “stolen.”
The Wall Street Journal decision to publish Trump’s bogus letter undermined the work of its staff that had already reported that the ex-president’s charges were bunk.
In nixing the former president’s letter, WaPo backed its reporters who poured over thousands of pages of court documents, hundreds of videos and interviews with 230 people who played a role in the day that Trump supporters attempted to overthrow America’s democracy.
The paper did report that Trump’s letter claimed that the Post’s reporting was “fake news” and denied the rioters had anything to do with Trump.
But they sure did like to wave those Trump flags.
America’s democracy is no longer the envy of the world, according to a poll conducted by Pew Research.
Nearly six in ten (57) of people polled in 16 countries say “the US used to be a good example of a model democracy but has not been in recent years.”
My hunch is that four years of Donald Trump in office and his subsequent undermining of the 2020 election, which triggered the attack on the seat of America’s democracy has other countries down in the dumps over the Land of the Free.
South Korea (73 percent) was most turned off by recent political events in the US. It was followed by Canada (69 percent), Japan (67 percent), Singapore (66 percent) and Australia (64 percent).
At 32 percent, Italy took the top spot of the countries saying America’s democracy is a good example to follow. Greece (25 percent), Spain (22 percent), UK (20 percent), Netherlands (18 percent) and France (18 percent) ranked next. Those numbers are hardly a robust endorsement of the USofA.
New Zealand, France and Greece tied at 27 percent in believing the US was never a good example to follow.
The countries rated America’s technology, popular culture and military as “the best or above average” compared to other developed nations.
Two out of three respondents view America’s healthcare system as “the worst” in the developed world.
Facebook (aka Meta) has taken a tiny step to improve its corporate image by shutting down its facial recognition system due to “growing concerns about the use of this technology as a whole,” according to a Nov. 2 blog post by Jerome Pesenti, VP-artificial intelligence at the company.
Facebook acknowledged “there are many concerns about the place of facial recognition technology and regulators are still in the process of providing a clear set of rules governing its use.”
In the upcoming weeks, Facebook will delete more than a billion people’s individual facial recognition templates.
More than a third of Facebook’s daily active users opted in to the Face Recognition setting.
Facebook hasn’t entirely pulled the plug. It will limit facial recognition to a narrow set of uses. Those categories include helping people get access to a locked account, or verifying their identity for financial accounts.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg still believes facial recognition “is both broadly valuable to people and socially acceptable, when deployed with care.”
Don’t blow it, Mark.
A huge PR opportunity looms for a firm that is willing to take some heat by promoting Immigration & Customs Enforcement... Disgraced New York mayor Eric Adams couldn't wait to make another pilgrimage to Israel to stick it to his successor Zohran Mamdani... Hats off to Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett for writing his always engaging and witty annual reports over the years.
The ADL plans a Mamdani Monitor to track down any whiff of antisemitism from the policies and appointments made by his administration. It should have given him a chance to live up to Election Night promise... Brendan Carr, Alden Global Capital, Alphabet, Meta and Elon Musk make Reporters Without Borders' roster of Press Freedom Predators.
Andrew Cuomo's political career is not dead yet... Steve Bannon says Republicans should learn from Zohran Mamdani and his Working Families Party and Democratic Socialists of America, instead of mocking them... Internet advertising model is on the way out, says Tim Berners-Lee... Gannet rebrands as USA Today Inc. What about its other 200 papers?
Thomas Jefferson warned about the dangers of an imperial president who would deny an election loss in a bid to cling to power. Sound familiar?... Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says reporters don't need his permisson to take a photo of the Pentagon's 9/11 memorial, as long as they are not on the job... Kirkland and Ellison lawyers need some negotiating tips. 
Shareholder activitism is poised to hit an all-time high for 2025... Kamala Harris’ “107 Days” reads like an autospsy of her failed presidential run. Democrats need to look forward, not backward... The Reagan Foundation dishonored The Gipper by providing PR cover to tariff-loving Trump.
