Biden Is Out of the Race

A historic moment of course, the first sitting President to bow out of an election since 1968, and the first to do so so (perilously) close to voting day. 

I think it's a stupid move,  regardless of the election's outcome, for all the reasons I listed here. 

What will go unmentioned today is how this showcases the power of the media. It was the press who covered up and denied Biden's decline,  even though it was painfully apparent to the public. When it could no longer be ignored,  post debate, they doubled down on his weakness and pushed and pushed and pushed for him to be out of office. 

I truly,  truly think that absent a conscious media avalanche Biden continues to November.  

The media is not a Kingmaker. They should not enthrone someone, by act or omission.  But that's what they have done all year,  and now it's gone so far as to override the millions of voters in the primaries. 

It's a shame. 

No. No there aren't giant spiders on Mars

I have mellowed a lot over the years, and even look at some of the old posts here and shake my head thinking "What was I thinking?"

But my distrust/disfavor for the media . . . ohhhhhh, that's a constant. 

There is no reason for EVERY. SINGLE. MEDIA SITE to run versions of the same misleading headline. Clearly, they mean to imply that spiders have been spotted on Mars, even if that belief is only held by the reader long enough to click and read the article. 

Ratings/engagement/clicks - that's what matters. 

Once you do read it - if you do - they quickly explain what it really is (and it ain't 8 legged arachnids). To quote a USA Today summation: 

The features known as "spiders" form when the weather starts to warm during the Martian springtime.

As the sunshine falls on layers of carbon dioxide deposited over the dark winter months, the ice begins to melt and the warmth causes the lowest layers of ice to turn to gas. The carbon dioxide gas warms and builds up before eventually breaking through slabs of overlying ice, dragging dark dust with it to the surface that shatters through like a geyser.

So no harm no foul, right?  I mean, they even put spiders in quotes, so who were they fooling? Except that after decades of the media dumbing down America, no one bothers to read the article, or think on their own. They just spout off in the comments, quoting their own moronic conspiracies. Take a look at this - I could have included page after page of this stuff. 

God help us all. 

Thank Goodness for Those Experts

: shakes my head:

It's not a US newspaper,  it's British. But I assume oxygen works the same way across the pond. 

Media Manipulation

Another lesson on how the media lies to manipulate you, without technically telling a fib. I mean, they do put a comma in the headline. 

25 years for shooting a police dog? The headline not only enrages the sympathies of the Left, it also placates the presumed call for harsh justice by the Right. 

Note: I'm Conservative, and think 25 years for shooting a dog is NUTS. 

Alas, either way the headline is horses$it. He got 5 years for shooting the dog, and 20 for armed carjacking and kidnapping. 

THE MEDIA IS THE ENEMY

Get an Editor

Mainstream Media screwup #2 of the night: it's  "berth," not "birth."

Do The Math

Umm...a little more than 11 years ago. Does the Media even screen their applicants anymore?