Tuesday, January 24

CNN, #FakeNews, and Witch Hunts

THIS IS NOT A POLITICAL ENDORSEMENT 


CNN has a history of using #FakeNews to conduct blame-shifting witch hunts.

By
Ray Blehar

On January 10th, then President Elect Donald Trump accurately characterized reports of “potentially damaging information” that Russia possessed about him as “FAKE NEWS” and that story was “A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT.”



As the old saying goes, even a broken clock is right twice a day.  


Within 24 hours, Trump was right again when he accurately called CNN a #FakeNews  organization based on its indefensible story that sensationalized the significance of the unverified dossier that was attached to a briefing given to then President Obama and some members of Congress.

CNN and many other news organizations possessed the dossier for a number of months and didn’t publish anything about it because it was unverifiable and was borne from opposition research.  

However, once Buzz Feed chose to publish the information, CNN quickly piled on -- reporting that the dossier contained “allegations…of compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump.”  Even though CNN understood the illegitimacy of the dossier, it went to considerable lengths to lend credence to the veracity of the source of the unverifiable information.

CNN’s excuse for referencing the dossier was that its report didn’t reference the specific details of the dossier, that the public had a right to know about it, and that it was attached to a briefing given by the Intelligence Community.

Later that day, the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, stated the report (dossier) was not verified by the Intelligence Community, that he was dismayed about the leak of information, and that national policy makers  have a right to be informed of such information.  

Left unsaid by Clapper, but surely understood, was that the public did not have a right to know about the contents of the classified briefing.

Similarly, the public also does not have a right to know about ongoing grand jury and/or criminal investigation information.   In many cases, this evidence is also biased, incomplete, not vetted, and most of all, from potentially dishonest/unreliable sources.  

CNN and others routinely use this inherently biased grand jury and criminal investigation to pen sensational #FakeNews stories with the intent to damage or demonize individuals or otherwise conduct witch hunts.

In this instance (and probably for the next four years), Trump = Witch.

Blame shifting comes part and parcel with witch hunting.

This whole #FakeNews episode was really about shifting the blame for the loss of the 2016 Presidential election away from its root cause – the dishonesty of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) -- and onto those who exposed their dishonesty.   In this blame shifting false narrative, more witches are needed.

FBI Director James Comey = Witch
Russian hackers = Witch

The bottom line is that if the DNC had been on the level and that if Clinton (and her staff) had been forthright in turning over her emails, Comey and the alleged Russian hackers wouldn’t have been a factor.   

Consider this: If the DNC ran an honest primary, maybe Bernie Sanders – not Donald Trump -- would be President right now.


But the issue at hand isn’t politics.


The issue is that the media, and particularly CCN (and NBC), have abandoned any pretense of fairness and journalism ethics in an attempt to sensationalize stories, punish individuals and communities, and push various agendas. 

Let’s take a walk down memory lane.


Fabricating the term “White Hispanic” – February 2012

In order to sensationalize a story about a shooting, CNN interjected race into the Trayvon Martin case inventing the term, “White Hispanic” to describe shooter George Zimmerman.    

Zimmerman = WITCH.

CNN altered the race of Zimmerman because his last name appeared to be European (e.g., German) and to provide racial overtones to the story. 

Photographs clearly revealed him to be a mixed race Hispanic. 

As a result of CNN’s #FakeNews story about a racially motivated murder, there were protest marches across the country, a civil rights referral to the Department of Justice, and the Sanford police chief lost his job.

In response to his removal, police chief Bill Lee said:

"I continue to stand by the work performed by the Sanford Police Department in this tragic shooting, which has been plagued by misrepresentations and false statements for interests other than justice."


“White Hispanic” is NOT one the many terms used to describe mixed race Hispanics.  Based on what was known of Zimmerman’s heritage, he would have been classified as a Mestizo.


A jury would later rule that Zimmerman shot Martin in self-defense and the Department of Justice later ruled it was not a civil rights issue or hate crime. 

This disgraceful reporting that resulted in racial division, wasted government resources and the loss of a man’s job was almost completely on them.

Almost.  Enter #FakeNews cohort, NBC.

NBC’s Today Show helped the racial angle of the story along by altering the 9-1-1 tape.   They claimed it was a mistake.

I suspect they knew exactly what they were doing and did it for the same reasons that CNN invented the term White Hispanic.   Sensational stories garner people’s attention and ratings go up.

CNN was called out by a few media members, including one of its own reporters, Ruben Navarrette, for inventing the term “white Hispanic.”  Interestingly, Navarrette opined that the networks immediately jumped to the conclusion that Zimmerman was white based on his last name and when they found out he was mixed race, they invented the term in an attempt to avoid embarrassment.  

Zimmerman shot Martin in self-defense.  As such, the blame belonged to Martin for attacking Zimmerman and provoking the shooting.  


CNN got this story sensationally wrong.


Penn State Emails – July 2012

In early July, CNN reported about the potentially damaging information against Penn State officials that was contained in email and documents that were leaked from the Jerry Sandusky grand jury/criminal investigation.   

Again, leaked information is often biased, incomplete, and provided to the media for the purpose of pushing an agenda. 

In this case, selective information was leaked to support the narrative that PSU officials (Curley, Schultz, and Spanier) covered-up Sandusky’s crimes.

PSU Officials = WITCH.

Throughout the column, CNN’s Susan Candiotti referred to the “purported” contents of the emails as if they were not in CNN’s possession.  But later in the story, Candiotti and her editors seemingly screwed up and admitted to possessing the emails.

In the same purported e-mail provided to CNN, Curley goes on to suggest that if Sandusky "is cooperative," Penn State "would work with him" to tell Second Mile. If not, Curley states, the university will inform both Second Mile and outside authorities.

CNN stated its sources were two persons with knowledge of the case.

Who might those sources have been?  Prosecutors?  Investigators?  Louis Freeh?

My money is on Sara Ganim.

Not so ironically, on March 22, 2012, Sara Ganim used a similar tactic of stating that an unnamed source provided her with the evaluation reports of Victim 6 that were attached to the 1998 University Park police report.

“A source who reviewed the documents told The Patriot News…”

The truth was – by the Patriot News’ admission -- that the police report had been in Ganim's possession since early 2011.  The police report notes that the documents referenced by Ganim were attached to it.

Ganim undoubtedly knew what the evaluations and the police report said in early 2011.   Page 10 of the police report revealed the state’s child welfare investigator, Jerry Lauro, directed Centre County Children and Youth Services (CC CYS) to conduct one of the evaluations.   Therefore, her March 2012 column implying that the child welfare department investigator, Jerry Lauro, didn’t have any knowledge of the evaluations was untruthful. 

Ganim’s blame shifting column headline read:

Patriot-News Special Report: 1998 Jerry Sandusky investigator would have pursued dropped case if he had seen hidden Penn State police report
CNN's July 2012 story perpetuated Ganim’s narrative of a PSU cover-up.   

It hired Ganim later in 2012. 

Her and CNN’s #FakeNews continued.


Unverified – UNC Athletes Can’t Read – January 2014

A January 2014 CNN report by Ganim relied extensively on Mary Willingham's  "research" which allegedly found 183 University of North Carolina athletes read between the 4th and 8th grade level.   Willingham, adding fuel to the fire, claimed she turned a blind eye to cheating and NCAA violations.


But, Willingham's study was not peer reviewed.  



Her allegations of cheating and NCAA violations were unchecked.



In a word, Willingham's work was unverified and Ganim didn’t check with anyone else at UNC to confirm Willingham’s information.



Ganim and the rest of the media didn't let facts stand in the way of a good story.


Former Governor Jim Martin investigated the UNC paper classes back in 2012 and correctly found that the problem was a lack of oversight of the African American Studies (AFAM) department by the academic side of the school.  Many of the classes were "aberrant" or "irregularly taught" from 2007 to 2011.


"The athletic department, coaches and players did not create this," Martin told the board of trustees. "It was not in their jurisdiction, it was the academic side."



When the media began fanning the flames about a cheating scandal in 2013, the administrators claimed no knowledge of what was happening in AFAM and pulled out the "corporate crisis playbook."


Like in the Sandusky scandal involving PSU, this #FakeNews story led UNC administration to hire a law firm to conduct a sham investigation and perform a public cleansing.  In the end, the Wainstein Report, like the Freeh Report and the more recent Pepper Hamilton Report at Baylor, scapegoated the athletic program.

Big Time Athletics = WITCH.

By comparison, Tucker’s report was much more thorough than Wainstein’s and arrived at the correct conclusion. 

Similar to CNN’s White Hispanic story, at least one member of the media understood what was going on and spoke out against the narrative of an athletic scandal.

ESPN's Jay Bilas, who attended Duke University – a fierce rival of UNC – put his biases aside and became a voice of reason.  He properly assessed the problem was academics, not athletics.   He pointed out that no coach can establish a class and a coach assumes if a class is offered, it's legitimate.  

In short, Bilas understood the blame-shifting narrative that took place in the UNC scandal.  Ironically, Bilas was unable to understand that the same type of blame shifting took place in the Sandusky scandal.  (More on that in a later blog)


While Bilas got it right, the majority of the public continues to believe the sensational #FakeNews story that phony classes were set up to benefit UNC athletes.

Ganim and CNN continued to produce more #FakeNews in 2016.


Paterno ignored 1971 report– July 2016

Sara Ganim’s column regarding an alleged 1971 child sex abuse incident that was allegedly reported to Joe Paterno should serve as reminder of why she won a Pulitzer Prize for LOCAL (not investigative journalism) about the “Penn State Scandal.”  

Ganim covered the scandal for over a year and knew that Sandusky was an acquaintance offender who befriended pre-teen boys and groomed them for victimization.    In the beginning of her #FakeNews column on the 1971 report, she mentioned that victims were hesitant to come forward as a result of their "close relationships" with Sandusky.  

As such, she obviously knew her story of Sandusky picking up a 15 year-old hitchhiker didn’t fit with Sandusky’ modus operandi.  Neither did this person’s allegations that Sandusky plied him with drugs and alcohol before forcibly raping him.

In an appearance on CNN’s Piers Morgan, Ganim bragged that she sat through all of the Sandusky trial.  She knew that no other victim testified to anything remotely close to this individual’s allegations.

This story was one falsehood after another.

The story continued on its incredulous path by next stating when the foster parents of the youth (dubbed Victim A) found out, they directed him NOT to call the police, but instead to call high-ranking Penn State officials.  The story got even more incredible when it stated the foster parents allegedly told the youth that Penn State wouldn't call the police.  

In what was surely another fabrication, the alleged Victim A states that he called the University and took part in a conference call with Joe Paterno and a man named Jim.  

After allegedly telling them he was raped by Sandusky, he alleged Paterno and Jim threatened to call the authorities on him because they couldn't believe an attack could have come from a man who "did so many good things." 

That allegation is simply undone by the fact that Sandusky wasn't famous in the community for his charitable work in 1971.  In fact, Sandusky had little of a track record on the coaching staff, having joined it in 1969.  He was an unheralded position coach then, but most importantly, didn’t form his Second Mile charity until six years later (in 1977).   He had no history of doing “good things.”

Ganim had to know these claims were false because she covered the scandal from 2011 until late 2012 and was quite familiar with Sandusky’s history.

Joe Paterno = Witch

If this story was true – and it isn’t – but if it was, the blame for failing to protect this boy was on the foster parents.

But Ganim and CNN was not about to let the law or logic stand in the way of a good story.

Next, CNN and Ganim took the risk of bolstering the claims by relying on a completely biased witness who had a local reputation for erratic/irrational behavior.

Ganim’s corroborating source was a locally well-known Paterno-hater named Bernie McCue.   Had the movie Happy Valley been a box office smash, maybe more people would have realized that Ganim was using a biased source.

McCue was featured in the movie Happy Valley conducting a pathetic one-man protest at the Paterno statue.  




McCue also had other anti-Paterno actions in his past, including writing derogatory and offensive notes in the courtesy newspapers and magazines provided at the Corner Room, then returning them for other patrons to find.  




He was also arrested for harassment regarding an incident allegedly over Peachy Paterno ice cream being served at the Berkey Creamery.  

Ganim apparently ignored McCue’s past and foisted him on the unwitting American public as a reliable witness.  

The only credible part of Ganim's story came at the end, where a state trooper recalled thinking the story was "too crazy to be believed."

While Ganim's lack of journalistic ethics has been proven time and time again and the fact that CNN allowed this story to be printed demonstrates their journalism ethics to be equally low.  

When I wrote to CNN and pointed out the problems with the story and asked for a retraction – I didn’t get a response.

The story remains on CNN’s web-site and Ganim remains employed there.


Anal Rape – November 2012

Ganim’s reputation was built on her a Pulitzer prize for local reporting on the Sandusky case.   However, she uses her Pulitzer credentials to pretend to be an investigative reporter and is considered credible in the industry.

Little does the public and other journalists know just how much information as fabricated, omitted, or altered in order for Ganim and the Patriot News to turn the Sandusky child victimization case into a Penn State scandal.

And that was done with just two words.

By interjecting the term “anal rape” into the coverage, the story immediately became sensationalized.  That was followed by writing a knowingly false story to push the agenda of a PSU cover up. 

Two days after the PSU Board of Trustees removed Paterno and Spanier from their positions, Ganim wrote a factually challenged story outlining the missed opportunities to curtail Sandusky’s crimes.  It included a passage in which the testimony of Gary Schultz was taken out of context and the order of reporting was changed in order to put forth a false narrative the PSU watered down McQueary’s report every step of the way. 

From the article (my emphasis added):

According to the grand jury, then, here is how McQueary’s eyewitness account became watered down at each stage:

McQueary: anal rape.

Paterno: something of a sexual nature.

Schultz: inappropriately grabbing of the young boy’s genitals.

Curley: inappropriate conduct or horsing around.

Spanier: conduct that made someone uncomfortable.
Raykovitz: a ban on bringing kids to the locker room.”


First, the grand jury report did not use the term “anal rape.”  It used “anal intercourse.”  Ganim would later allege that she used the term rape because local district attorneys felt it would help them get more rape convictions.    Ganim also noted that it was easier to use the term “rape” than to write out “Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse” each time.    Obviously, that’s a rather hollow rationale given that “IDSI” – the acronym for Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse – has same number of characters as “rape.”

Next, on December 16th, 2011, McQueary testified (page 72) that he "never used the word anal or rape in this from Day 1.”

Two sentences. Two falsehoods.

Third, Paterno did not inform Gary Schultz of the incident. Paterno  informed Curley.   Thus if Curley said it was “horsing around,” then Schultz escalated – not watered down the version of events.

As more truth is revealed, the story continues to collapse.

Schultz’s testimony was read into the record on December 16, 2001. Schultz’s testimony (page 211) was very clear that McQueary did not tell him of grabbing of the genitals.  Schultz instead stated he had the feeling and/or got the impression that Sandusky and the boy were wrestling around and it might have happened.   In short, Schultz’s testimony was that he could not specifically recall what he was told by McQueary.  

McQueary confirmed Schultz testimony when he was asked if “he saw Sandusky touching the boy’s genitals?”  

McQueary’s response (page 73) was “Absolutely not.”

Based on this evidence, Ganim’s “watered down” narrative completely collapsed and she knew it on December 16th, 2011.

Did Ganim correct her story?  
No.  

Did she retract it?  
No.

What did she do with it?  
She submitted it as part of her award package to be considered by the Pulitzer Prize committee.

Sensationalism took precedence over the facts.  The Pulitzer Committee obviously didn’t fact check any of the stories and Ganim won based on her blame-shifting narrative of a PSU cover up. 

Ironically, when those with considerable knowledge of the case (i.e., PSU alumni) inform the media about who was actually responsible to protect the children, the media accuses the alumni of blame-shifting.


The Future

The state of the media has gotten so hopeless that Pope Francis felt the need to weigh in.

In December, the pope said scandal-mongering media that focused only on muckraking or that spread fake news risked becoming like those who have a fascination with excrement.

He stated that spreading disinformation was “probably the greatest damage that the media can do” and using communications for this rather than to educate the public amounted to a sin.

The Pope's statements sums up what PSU alumni have been complaining about for over five years.  

Unfortunately, the media has shown no signs that it is willing to change its ways and it is hell bent on continuing to press its agenda through #FakeNews and Witch Hunts.

To CNN, PSU will remain as the Witch and they will continue to shift the blame away from where it belongs -- even though their #FakeNews endangers the lives of children.


THIS IS NOT A POLITICAL ENDORSEMENT 

24 comments:

  1. This is very good work, Ray. But I must point out that you failed to mention the media's accomplice: The American public. Fueled by Internet anonymity, folks today have no problem assailing these designated 'witches' with any and all manner of debasement. We have politico's, Catholic haters, College rivals and race baiters all too eager to validate anything salacious that comes their way.

    When greedy lawyers get into the act, the coalition of these groups becomes toxic. The proliferation of social justice warriors who provide the coercion that suckers others into supporting their attack (or be debased themselves) results. Eventually, the American justice system itself is compromised (sometimes all too willingly) and we get the injustices you mention.

    I am not sure PSU will ever be exonerated for the Sandusky mess. While fake news is terrible, we must be ever aware of it's existence. Alternative views cannot be assumed to be 'fake' as this is equally dangerous. Were someone to tag your views as 'fake', those views might be censored and we might never have a voice at all. Pushing the truth to the forefront is all we can do so I thank you for that. Keep up the fight.

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    1. Philip,
      Thanks for your comments. I agree that the public is easily fooled because, in many cases, they are just as bad as the media in terms of always focusing on negativity.

      I agree with you that alternative theories, sometimes called "conspiracy theories," should be considered until there is evidence to rule them out. Moreover, the allegations put forth by prosecutors are often little more than a theory on what happened based on very carefully selected evidence -- with other evidence that doesn't fit the theory excluded. That is exactly what transpired in the Duke Lax case and in the PSU scandal.

      In closing, I don't care if PSU is exonerated in the Sandusky scandal. I suspect there may have been individuals at PSU who pulled strings in 1998 to make sure he didn't get caught. However, I am quite certain that those facing charges right now and Joe Paterno were scapegoated to deflect attention away from those who enabled Sandusky.

      We will keep fighting until the truth is known.

      Delete
  2. Ray, It's true what you are saying about CNN. But they are only a grain of sand on the beach of the Elite's Zionist media matrix. Their goal is to literally control and weaken America through deception in our corrupt MSM. Our political system is not legitimate and the illusion of choice (Hillary, Trump) is a psyop to divide Americans against each other.

    We are being fooled, angered and misled on a daily basis just by turning on the television or reading the news. None of our presidents have been legitimate at least since the murder of JFK. This was probably the coup that started this whole war of deception on the American citizen. Kennedy spoke with a genuine heartfelt passion for this country and all of us that call ourselves Americans. He was a threat to the blossoming NWO Zionists that wanted perpetual war and the resulting power and wealth it would bring them. They, only 1%, would benefit from taking over America and installing fake presidents to lie to us and keep us angry and divided. We are easily led into war with our "news" that causes us to despise the wrong people and their countries for the wrong reasons. And now that some of us are catching on, the Zionist puppet masters are ramping up the divisions here at home(race baiting, partisanship) to keep us from seeing their filthy hands on everything.

    Those of us that have friends, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, and brothers and sisters that were killed fighting in wars created through deception by the Zionist elite, find it very hard to accept the truth. I am one of them. As the true nature of the Iraq War and the 9/11 false flag that duped us into it started coming to light, I felt denial, then great sadness, then anger, and now, a desire to spread the truth.

    Questioning false narratives is not unpatriotic as our Zionist media would have us believe. Questioning a president that was installed by these Zionist criminals is not questioning our democracy, it's questioning the attack on our democracy. And the attacks on our democracy are not coming from the "left" or the "right" or the "democrats-DNC" or the "republicans-congress". That is a MSM-generated fiction that is designed to divide Americans against each other. If we are divided, we are weak and the Christian and Jewish Zionists know this. "Zionist" is not an anti-Semitic term, nor is it ant-Israel. It is simply a term that cloaks destructive extremism for profit in religious and political ideology. And these people are sellouts that are trading the welfare and protection of America for money.

    Jewish Zionists have collaborated with American Christian Zionists like Louis Freeh, George W. Bush, Obama, Donald Trump, and Hillary Clinton to deceive and plunder the citizens of America. They are all actors working for the same political media bosses. Ever wonder how Louis Freeh was able to summon an international fleet of media satellite trucks for his fraudulent PSU press conference? It's the same backing that Hillary and Trump have---media masters of illusion.

    For more on this, please take some time and watch a couple of short presentations on Youtube: Channel--TruthMediaRevolution, Videos--The greatest puppet show on Earth, and The Trump deception.

    Thank you, and God Bless everyone!

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  3. I am incredibly insulted that "TruthSeeker" chooses to call those with whom he despises Zionists. He may claim that it's not an anti-Semitic term but that's like saying the "N" word is not racist.

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    1. Gee Unknown, you say the term "Zionist" is comparable to the "N" word nig*er. Sorry, but you are not even close with this false analogy. The term nig*er is an ethnic slur and is of course derogatory. The term "Zionist" has never been considered an ethnic slur. And in fact, it has never been considered to be pejorative. It is simply a term adopted by Israeli nationalists to describe themselves. It has evolved to include Christian zealots in the U.S. that support Israeli nationalism. This is the problem I described in my above post: American extremism or nationalism supporting extremism or nationalism in Israel with the covert end goal of uniting right-wing extremists in a totalitarian NWO. Thus, corpora-terrorism, false flag mass shootings, 9/11 and even the 2016 U.S. election and "Russian Hacking" as the scapegoat for Zionist hacking.

      Our Zionist media has only very recently tried to push the false notion of "Zionist" being a hateful pejorative term. Well, I wonder why? Because the traitors in our media and our government are being discovered for what they are, Zionists. So what better way to accuse those that have exposed them? Change the meaning of the word itself. Make it appear that it's a hateful derogatory term and those that call a spade a spade are actually racist. Zionism has nothing to do with ethnicity. It has everything to do with supporting the covert criminal undermining of American democracy for financial self-enrichment. The extremist NWO under either Hillary or Trump (both serve the same masters) cannot survive with a healthy democracy in place. American citizens are being pitted against each other by Zionists to effectively destroy our once-healthy democracy.

      In a 2007 interview, Joe Biden proclaimed himself to be a Zionist. As he put it euphemistically, "a friend to Israel". Actually, Biden as a Zionist, secretly supports Israeli nationalist terrorism in America. But of course he can't say that. If an American politician is dumb enough to publicly announce he is a Zionist, then he deserves to be labeled an extremist. Trump was at least smart enough to just say "I love Israel" instead of "I'm a Zionist".

      These traitors are being exposed, and all good Americans now know.

      Delete
    2. Truthseeker, you have made it abundantly clear that you have disdain for the Jewish people. Consider me pissed off too.

      Delete
    3. Aimee F,

      Unfortunately the good people of Israel and now America are in the grip of political and religious extremists. These extremists (Zionists) are waging a covert war with propaganda in the form of false flag terrorism. Our media then headlines these events as real instead of staged. It has been a gradual 54 year long takeover here in America---a long slow infiltration to finally get someone like Trump or Hillary in there. And the weapons used were money, threats, and blackmail.

      How did Trump win? He came off as an American nationalist playing on rural white America's fear of foreigners. And then a final "helping hand" with Zionist hacking. But of course, it's presented to us as "Russian Hacking".

      The Zionist media has stoked this fire well with contrived but frightening immigrant crime stories. All of these dark-skinned people raping, and shooting up white America is the same as Muslims terrorizing Israelis. Zionists are creating false terror and real terror paid for with millions plundered from innocent citizens of the world.

      Aimee F, I have no disdain whatsoever for the good honest people in this world, regardless of their color or nationality. Because good honest hardworking Jews are the same as good honest hardworking Christians. We want peace for our families, not terrorism blamed on the wrong people to force an agenda of hatred and totalitarianism. I think you know this, but faux rage is the tool you are using to mislabel me and others that are learning what Zionism is.

      Again, Zionism is a doctrine that has nothing to do with ethnicity. And this warped doctrine actually uses racism to control the masses by amplifying and stoking our fears with propaganda. Good people that are Jews, Muslims and Christians are waking up to this pathetic Zionist media manipulation---we no longer want to be fooled into hating each other.

      Delete
  4. "This whole #FakeNews episode was really about shifting the blame for the loss of the 2016 Presidential election away from its root cause – the dishonesty of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) -- and onto those who exposed their dishonesty. In this blame shifting false narrative, more witches are needed."


    I feel like this piece of argument is an oversimplification and also a red herring. The Republican candidate spoke and acted with far greater dishonesty (both in quantity and severity) than the Democratic candidate, however voters punished Trump far less for it than Clinton. Trumps current claims of 3-5 million illegal votes are a continuation of his bald faced lies which never materialized into outrage.

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    1. HMCIV,
      Thanks for commenting.

      1. First, what you quoted is a simplification --- but NOT an oversimplification.

      2. The next paragraph is more specific in explaining what was meant by "dishonesty."
      a. The DNC emails revealed they were rigging the primary for Hillary. In short, the DNC ran a "dishonest" primary.
      b. Had Hillary turned over all of her emails -- instead of deleting some 30,000 after she was subpoenaed, then James Comey wouldn't have reopened the investigation in October. In short, Clinton's initial dishonesty was the root cause of Comey rearing his head again.

      3. The Clinton's calling out Comey and the Russians meets the definition of a "red herring."

      4. Both candidates scored quite low for being honest and you are likely correct that Trump supporters didn't punish him for being dishonest -- mostly because they didn't pay attention to the media reports on his dishonesty. Trust in the media hit an all time low in September 2016 -- with ONLY 32% stating they had a great deal or fair amount of trust in "mass media." These people were mostly Clinton supporters. Republican trust in the media was only 14%, while Democrat trust in the media was 51%. Independents trusted the media at 30%.

      5. While it is your opinion (and the media's) that Trump is lying about illegal voting, the media has NO PROOF at this point in time to definitively point to to prove it's a lie. Moreover, the media states that it is a "debunked" claim. If it is, where is the data that debunks it? Obviously, there is a high probability that Trump is exaggerating the number of illegal votes cast in the last election, however, in the interest of truth, I'm all for the Trump administration conducting an investigation to determine how many illegal votes were cast.

      As long as they don't hire Louis Freeh to conduct it.

      Cheers!

      Delete
    2. Good catch HMCIV,

      It's all an act to divide and conquer. Both Hillary and Trump are traitors telling obvious lies to agitate the "poor stupid Americans" that have been programmed to defend "their party". Even if it's bald- faced lies like you say, defending the party is the reflex reaction. We are being played like a cheap violin to the Zionist tune of "Divide and Conquer".

      I say we tune out the dirty Zionist provocateurs and begin boycotting them as illegitimate. Leave their circus tent and never buy tickets again. We can resurrect the real America together---black, white, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, democrats, republicans, green party, everyone but the Zionist traitors that have have tried to crush the democracy and idealism that is the humble, honest people----the spirit of America.

      The bible says that God is a spirit. And a spirit can only be felt, not seen. We must feel the spirit of God and unite peacefully against the Zionists that have made a mockery of "IN GOD WE TRUST". It's our country and we must accept EVERYONE in this world that wants to embrace our democracy as it is supposed to be.

      Delete
    3. Right on, Ray. Opinions are not lies.

      No different than the Intell Community providing their opinion, without providing evidence, that the Russians impacted the election.

      They still have not provided evidence. But, no one, not even Trump, is calling them liars.

      Delete
    4. Frank,
      Thanks for your comment.

      The IC gave a very qualified opinion, stating that they believed the Russians were attempting to impact the election but could not quantify the impact.

      I will comment further on this report when I'm retired (LOL).

      As for what is a lie. In the words of George Costanza, of Seinfeld fame, "it's not a lie if you believe it." I think that is appropriately applied to Trump's statement on illegal voting. While no one can read another person's mind, I suspect that Trump actually believes 3-5 million illegal votes were cast.

      The media alleges that the figure is wrong based on the number of illegal voting cases that have been PROSECUTED. However, the number of prosecutions is likely far less than the number of actual illegal voting actions because many people are not caught.
      To make an analogy, the number of impaired driving instances (unknown) is likely far MORE than the number of "driving while impaired" citations/arrests because many people drive while under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol and don't get caught

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    5. Ray,

      I realize it’s your blog but I’m sorry to see so much politics being introduced into it. The last three main entries along with many of the replies have ended up heavily focused on politics with some discussion of “fake news” as relates to Penn State. In my opinion we already get politics shoved shoved at us 24/7 from everywhere else and I, personally, am sick of it. This site used to provide a lot of interesting and useful information here on the Sandusky Second Mile Scandal (SSMS). Lately it has turned mostly to politics with many replies appearing to be from “budding novelists” that aren’t related to the scandal. I say appearing because I rarely read beyond their first sentence once I see “Trump, Hillary or election”.

      I learned a lot about the SSMS but now I rarely check in here. As soon as I see the non-Sandusky political stuff move on to other sites. I’ll continue to stop by (but less often) and hope that someday it returns primarily to real issues with the Sandusky scandal and those involved with it.

      Jeff

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    6. Jeff, Ray is awesome and you shouldn't expect him to continue rehashing everything he's taught us about how Graham Spanier and Joe Paterno where set up to take the fall for the Second Mile. After five long years of investigating, writing and publishing his findings that prove corruption, he can only scrape the bottom of the barrel now.

      Most people would have expected that justice would have been properly served after 5 years with all the criminal activity that Ray has exposed. But such is not the case. And to me, this is very disturbing and indicates a larger hindrance to our democracy.

      This is why I put in my two cents here about the American Zionist cabal dismantling our Constitution. It's the reason that the Second Mile had not been investigated. Surely you can see the importance of why 5 years has gone by with no investigations or charges filed against The Second Mile? It makes no sense, until you make the connection to the dirty politics that you say don't relate. Really?

      It's to Ray's credit that he doesn't block us "budding novelists" that can see the larger picture of a broken justice system, and why it's broken. It does relate to Sandusky, his Second Mile, Tom Corbett, Frank Fina, Frank Noonan, Risa Vetri Ferman, Bruce Beemer, Kevin Steele, Bruce Castor, Kathleen Kane and all the other politicians that are involved in this mess. That word, "politics", that you say isn't part of the Sandusky scandal most certainly is the reason for the Scandal. And it goes on up the dirty chain of command.

      Oh, and by the way, my "budding novelist" days are long over. But Ray has related to us many times that he will putting out a book about this mess. But I'm sure the Zionist cabal here in Pennsylvania will enter his works into their book-burning fires of revisionist history.

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    7. Truthseeker,
      Thanks for your comments (and endorsement).

      While I haven't entered into this discussion over Zionism, there is some truth to both sides of the story.

      The term Zionist has become a perjorative term mostly because it is used by leaders of some Middle Eastern countries and terrorist groups to describe Israelis.

      Next, there are some who believe that because the media (and Hollywood) is controlled predominantly by Jewish folks that they use the news and movies for pushing their agenda. Interestingly, there have been some recent news stories about the media being to blame for much of the division in the U.S. today.

      While I agree that the media has become a divisive force, I am not convinced that the media are Zionists. The recent decision by the Obama administration not to veto the U.N. vote against Israeli settlements was hardly criticized by the majority of the media.

      I
      It is highly probable that there is a criminal element - corruption - in the PA criminal justice system and judiciary that is behind the Sandusky mess.

      That said, the first book I write will be about Sara Ganim's and the Patriot News decision to sell PA's kids down the river to win a Pulitzer prize.

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    8. Jeff,
      Thanks for your comment and for reading the first sentence of the blog. Had you bothered to read further, you would have found some very valuable information about the media's role in the PSU scandal.

      Cheers!

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  5. Ray - I think you are confusing some issues and creating your own fake news. The Russians hacked emails from other Democrat accounts. They didn't hack the ones on Hillary's private email server that were the ones being investigated by the FBI.

    The "new" emails from Hillary's server were ones found on Anthony Weiner's laptop. Weiner got in trouble when he tweeted a sexually suggestive photo of himself to an underage girl. Weiner's wife, Huma Abedin, is a close associate of Hillary's.

    Hillary clearly did something stupid by co-mingling her personal emails with her government emails. If the FBI had investigated previous Secretaries of State, they probably would have found similar problems. Colin Powell used a personal email account as Secretary of State.

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  6. Tim,
    Thanks for your comments.

    I did not conflate the two issues in the least. The Clinton camp blamed Comey and the Russians hacking for their election loss, exactly as I reported.

    I am also correct to state (in my reply comment to HMCIV) that if Clinton had turned over all the emails, rather than deleting 30,000, there would have been no need for the FBI to investigate Weiner's lap top (to see if any of the deleted emails were there). The Russian's allegedly had not hacked into Clinton's server -- though I am somewhat skeptical of that conclusion. That said, Comey stated that unspecified "hostile actors" gained access to her server.

    Given that Clinton put classified information on a private server using the domain name "clintonemail" and her name as well as other staff's names showed up, it would seem to be rather easy for hackers to track down the server.

    Colin Powell had a personal email account but he didn't use it to transact classified government business. Powell advised Clinton to set up a personal account for her non-government related communications.

    I could write a lot more about this, but will wait until I'm retired.

    Cheers!

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    1. I'm not going to debate politics here anymore because that's not why I come here. I think an article discussing Presidential politics detracts and diminishes a blog on the Second Mile - Sandusky scandal, especially when it needs a "Not a Political Endorsement" disclaimer.

      If you must discuss other examples of witch hunts, why not restrict it to sex abuse scandals involving universities. There seems to be no shortage of those.

      I don't believe the Michigan State scandal involving alleged sex abuse of female gymnasts has been mentioned here yet. The accused there is Dr. Larry Nassar.

      There's also the ongoing Baylor football team rape scandal with a recent lawsuit claiming 52 rapes by 31 football players in a 4 year span.

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    2. Tim,

      Don't you think that presidential politics does eventually have an influence on state politics? It is Pennsylvania's corrupted judiciary and dirty politics that allowed the Sandusky scandal to be blamed on PSU instead of The Second Mile. At this point, the only way Ray can write more about the Second Mile is if the justice system starts to investigate them.

      The Michigan State "sex abuse scandal" that you mention is all too similar to the "PSU sex abuse scandal". I look at the mainstream media's vilification of Dr. Larry Nassar with the same cautious skepticism that I did when they vilified Joe Paterno. There's almost a playbook-style list of criteria these two manufactured scandals share: Major universities, athletics, Long-time respected and successful male sports leaders accused belatedly, alleged child sex abuse, a long line of so-called victims coming forward exponentially, no real solid evidence--just hearsay, and monetary gain as motivation for "coming forward" with accusations. One thing that I find suspicious about the allegations against Dr. Nassar is the fact that he is possibly Middle Eastern. This could be a coincidence, but I personally don't think so. Zionism is a hidden but ruthless agenda. And it's rampant in America's media now---trial by headlines.

      If we look closely at the commonalities of these two scandals(Michigan State and PSU) and many other similar university scandals, we can fairly surmise that some sort of social engineering is being attempted through our highly dubious MSM. This is why I am trying to educate fellow Americans about the "taboo" topic of Zionism.

      I believe that American culture itself is under a attack because it reflects how we feel about ourselves and how we feel about America. College and pro sports figures like O.J. Simpson and entertainers like Bill Cosby are a huge part of how we perceive ourselves as Americans. Our kids aspire to be great athletes, scholars, and even possibly, entertainers. And they look to the great role models in our universities to identify with such as Joe Paterno and/or Graham Spanier. And black America has its sports and entertainment role models in O.J. Simpson and Bill Cosby. So if an outside entity or nation wanted to degrade our collective culture and self-esteem as a country, how would they do it? I believe the most insidious and effective way to do it would be through our media including movies, television, magazines, newspapers and internet news. If we can be gradually beaten down, and led to believe that America is not so great and it's going to Hell in a handbasket, then we are made vulnerable to accepting a new "system" Thus, the Zionist New World Order which has recruited misguided Christian zealots here at home. The "New World Order" is nothing but a euphemism for whole world dictatorship under religious fascists in Israel and now, sadly, America.

      Murdering JFK was the way to begin the subtle but continuous media assault on America's belief in itself. How many times have we heard the phrase, "why does it always seem that the good ones are taken from us?" Well, I'm here to tell you that it's no coincidence, it happens over and over again. And if the evil ones that hate America's pride and democracy can't do it with murder, they'll do it with character assassination.

      We are in dire straights people. There are traitors in our Congress and Senate, in our military and intelligence agencies, in our MSM, and now in our churches and schools. We must revert back to a self-governing frontier mentality and boycott the criminal aspects of our government until the false leaders are removed and our legitimate government is restored.

      Stay safe, believe in America, and God Bless all good people of the world!

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  7. Ray, you are getting way off track. It is ok that you talk about Trump and the media, but to defend his comment on 3-5 million illegal votes is over the top. Logic tells us that if this were the case Trump would have surely received the benefit of some of these votes. He claims not.

    Then you don't even mention Fox News. They are not known as "Faux News" for nothing. You cannot talk about one of the cable news networks without talking about the other two.

    I have always been impressed with your work on the Sandusky scandal, but this current post will cause your credibility to drop. I for one would like to see you stick to the original plan, of which I must ask the question- have you given up on the CSS trial?

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    1. DMarioP,

      Well as I stated already, I think CNN is only a grain of sand on the beach of the Zionist Media Matrix. It looks to me that they are being used as the fall guy by the Zionists to make it look as though Trump is calling them out on mainstream fake news and they are the only ones doing it. They'll probably have CNN fold and fool us into thinking that Trump has "defeated" MSM fake news.

      Gerald Levin is the CEO of AOL Time Warner/CNN. He took over the conglomerate from Ted Turner who was the last non-Jewish CEO in control of an American mass media outlet. As I stated earlier, good honest hardworking Jews are not the issue. It's the wealthy organized crime element of Zionism that is the problem. Now, all 7 major news outlets in the U.S. are owned and controlled by Zionist Jews. These seven multi-billion dollar propaganda mills can easily absorb CNN, renaming it and repackaging it as a "truthful" network that Trump brought us.

      It really is time for good Americans that have been misled and coerced by the lies and money of Zionism wrapped in American nationalism to begin disavowing this doctrine. The absurd and chaotic state of this election facade and now the Trump-generated chaos is a clear indicator for those involved to start jumping ship. Those that continue to participate and defend this insane facade to the end will be exposed and punished as criminals. Any misguided American involved must now reach deep inside for their love of country and expose this---they most certainly will be forgiven.

      Google search: "The Criminal Nature of the Zionist Controlled Press"---very enlightening.

      Also, another MAJOR development ignored by the Zionist mainstream press: NIST (National Institute of Standards), Peter Michael Ketcham comes forward as a whistleblower, admitting his realization that government 9/11 reports are false.

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  8. Ray, you are getting way off track. It is ok that you talk about Trump and the media, but to defend his comment on 3-5 million illegal votes is over the top. Logic tells us that if this were the case Trump would have surely received the benefit of some of these votes. He claims not.

    Then you don't even mention Fox News. They are not known as "Faux News" for nothing. You cannot talk about one of the cable news networks without talking about the other two.

    I have always been impressed with your work on the Sandusky scandal, but this current post will cause your credibility to drop. I for one would like to see you stick to the original plan, of which I must ask the question- have you given up on the CSS trial?

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  9. Ray,

    Just saw a report from Bucks Country on the bust of a major pedophile ring there. Abusers were posing as animals. Didn't see any mention of Nittany Lions but wonder if they were formerly related to The Second Mile?

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