fake news
Wed Jan 17 19:30:00 EST 2018
From the (CBC) AIH Transcript for January 17, 2017Republican Senator Jeff Flake speaking earlier today in the U.S. Senate:
2017 was a year which saw the truth - objective, empirical evidence-based truth - more battered and abused than at any time in the history of our country - at the hands of the most powerful figure in our government. The 'enemy of the people' was how the President of the United States called the Free Press in 2017. Mr. President*, it is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own President uses words infamously spoken by Joseph Stalin to describe his enemies. It bears noting that so fraught with malice was the phrase 'enemy of the people' that even Nikita Khrushchev forbade its use, telling the Soviet Communist Party that the phrase had been introduced by Stalin for the purpose of quote "annihilating such individuals" unquote who disagreed with the supreme leader. This alone should be the source of great shame for us in this body, especially for those of us in the President's party, for they are shameful, repulsive statements.
And, of course, the President has it precisely backward, despotism as the enemy of the people. The Free Press is the despot's enemy, which makes the free press the guardian of democracy. When a figure in power reflexively calls any press that doesn't suit him 'fake news,' it is that person who should be the figure of suspicion, not the press. I dare say that anyone who has had the privilege and awesome responsibility to serve in this chamber knows that these reflexive slurs of 'fake news' are dubious at best. Those of us who travel overseas, especially to war zones and other troubled areas all around the globe, encounter members of U.S.-based media who risk their lives, and sometimes lose their lives, reporting on the truth. To dismiss their work as 'fake news' is an affront to their commitment and their sacrifice.
*I think he's addressing the president of the Senate at that point.
[This entry was originally posted as https://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/950784.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]
From the (CBC) AIH Transcript for January 17, 2017Republican Senator Jeff Flake speaking earlier today in the U.S. Senate:
2017 was a year which saw the truth - objective, empirical evidence-based truth - more battered and abused than at any time in the history of our country - at the hands of the most powerful figure in our government. The 'enemy of the people' was how the President of the United States called the Free Press in 2017. Mr. President*, it is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own President uses words infamously spoken by Joseph Stalin to describe his enemies. It bears noting that so fraught with malice was the phrase 'enemy of the people' that even Nikita Khrushchev forbade its use, telling the Soviet Communist Party that the phrase had been introduced by Stalin for the purpose of quote "annihilating such individuals" unquote who disagreed with the supreme leader. This alone should be the source of great shame for us in this body, especially for those of us in the President's party, for they are shameful, repulsive statements.
And, of course, the President has it precisely backward, despotism as the enemy of the people. The Free Press is the despot's enemy, which makes the free press the guardian of democracy. When a figure in power reflexively calls any press that doesn't suit him 'fake news,' it is that person who should be the figure of suspicion, not the press. I dare say that anyone who has had the privilege and awesome responsibility to serve in this chamber knows that these reflexive slurs of 'fake news' are dubious at best. Those of us who travel overseas, especially to war zones and other troubled areas all around the globe, encounter members of U.S.-based media who risk their lives, and sometimes lose their lives, reporting on the truth. To dismiss their work as 'fake news' is an affront to their commitment and their sacrifice.
*I think he's addressing the president of the Senate at that point.
[This entry was originally posted as https://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/950784.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]