media matters

[Farfromgeneva]

When I started law school, I lived in a house with a bunch of guys in Arlington, Virginia. I was the only student; the rest of them had jobs. One day I came home and, much to my surprise, there were issues of Playboy, Penthouse, and Oui magazine that had been delivered to the house. All in my name. One of my roommates fessed up and said he had, without my knowledge or permission, used my student status to get student subscription rates to all the magazines. Needless to say, I got some interesting junk mail for years after that.

Nice. Hope you at least got the Frederick’s of Hollywood catalogs as well.

[youthathletics]

When I started law school, I lived in a house with a bunch of guys in Arlington, Virginia. I was the only student; the rest of them had jobs. One day I came home and, much to my surprise, there were issues of Playboy, Penthouse, and Oui magazine that had been delivered to the house. All in my name. One of my roommates fessed up and said he had, without my knowledge or permission, used my student status to get student subscription rates to all the magazines. Needless to say, I got some interesting junk mail for years after that.

Nice. Hope you at least got the Frederick’s of Hollywood catalogs as well.

You two should get a room.

[Seacoaster(1)]

A New York judge has ruled that Fox Corporation must face Smartmatic's $2.7 billion defamation suit — denying a motion to dismiss defamation claims against Fox News' parent company. Is that the smell of Fox caving?

[Seacoaster(1)]

More on the Smartmatic litigation:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/29/business ... index.html

"In the wake of the 2020 election, the president of the far-right network One America News sent a potentially explosive email to former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell, with a spreadsheet claiming to contain passwords of employees from the voting technology company Smartmatic, according to court filings.

The existence of the spreadsheet was recently disclosed by Smartmatic, which is suing OAN for defamation. CNN pieced together who was involved in the email exchanges by examining court records from three separate cases stemming from the 2020 election.

Lawyers from Smartmatic told a federal judge that the email, and the attached spreadsheet, suggest OAN executives “may have engaged in criminal activities” because they “appear to have violated state and federal laws regarding data privacy.”

The court records don’t say how OAN obtained the spreadsheet, or whether the supposed Smartmatic passwords were authentic. Nobody from OAN has been charged with any crimes. But it came at a time when OAN, Powell and others in their orbit were aggressively peddling false claims that there was massive voter fraud in 2020, and that Smartmatic was to blame.

According to court filings, the supposed passwords were shared around the same time that Powell, her associates and other Trump supporters were trying to improperly access voting systems across the country, to prove their false claims of voter fraud.

The January 8, 2021, email exchange between OAN President Charles Herring and Powell has recently emerged as a flashpoint in Smartmatic’s defamation lawsuit against the pro-Trump network. The email isn’t public, but Smartmatic revealed some of its contents in a public filing after obtaining the materials in the discovery process.

While Smartmatic’s public filings didn’t identify the sender or recipient of the email, court records from a separate 2020-related lawsuit confirm that Herring and Powell exchanged emails on the same date. The pair’s communications about the purported Smartmatic spreadsheet, which have not been previously reported, resurrect questions that have dogged OAN for years regarding its tendency to blur the lines between opinion journalism and brazen political advocacy.

Baseless 2020 smears

Smartmatic has sued OAN, Powell, and other Trump allies and right-wing outlets, seeking billions of dollars in damages for their 2020 election lies. After former President Donald Trump lost the election, they spread baseless claims that election software from Smartmatic and another company flipped millions of votes from Trump to Joe Biden.

OAN and Powell are fighting the defamation cases and deny wrongdoing.

“OAN denies that its executive team ‘may have engaged in criminal activities.’ This vague accusation is a clumsy attempt to smear OAN and to divert attention from Smartmatic’s own misconduct,” OAN lawyer Charles Babcock said in a statement.

Babcock pointed to federal charges filed against a former top election official from the Philippines, who allegedly took bribes from Smartmatic. They both deny the allegations.

Powell separately pleaded guilty in October to six misdemeanor crimes in Georgia’s sweeping election subversion case, stemming from her role in the conspiracy to breach voting software in Coffee County. That breach occurred one day before Herring allegedly sent her the spreadsheet.

Powell and the other Trump allies involved in the breaches wanted to examine the systems to corroborate their fraud theories - which she was simultaneously promoting on OAN, Fox News and Newsmax, despite being told that their claims were baseless.

They undertook those efforts after Trump rebuffed wild proposals from Powell and others to sign an executive order directing the military to seize voting machines.

Potential ‘criminal activities’

The revelations were surfaced by Smartmatic as part of an effort to convince the judge in its case against OAN that the network is withholding key documents in the discovery process.

“Discovery from the (OAN) executive team is critical to establishing actual malice because the (OAN) executive team may have engaged in criminal activities to further the election fraud claims generally and Smartmatic fraud claims specifically,” Smartmatic lawyers wrote in a December court filing that mentioned the spreadsheet.

The company’s lawyers further alleged that, “discovery to date has also uncovered that certain members of the (OAN) executive team appear to have violated state and federal laws regarding data privacy in connection with promoting election fraud claims.”

Smartmatic’s top attorney, Erik Connolly, said in a sworn affidavit that the email exchange with the spreadsheet was among “members of the (OAN) executive team” and “an individual who has already pled guilty to crimes relating to the 2020 election.”

CNN has not independently reviewed the emails or the spreadsheet. It’s unclear if the spreadsheet has any connections to the breach in rural Coffee County - which used software from Dominion Voting Systems, and not Smartmatic, in the 2020 election.

Herring and an attorney for Powell did not provide a comment for this story.

Fringe far-right network

OAN has established itself as perhaps the most extreme of the pro-Trump news outlets. And its reporters have sometimes crossed the line into right-wing politicking.

The little-watched network regularly gives airtime to baseless conspiracy theories that support Trump. The channel even worked closely with Russian operatives on a propaganda-style documentary during Trump’s first impeachment in 2019 over allegations he pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rivals. One of its correspondents, who is also an attorney, even worked with Trump’s legal team to subvert the 2020 election results.

Another recent court filing in a related case suggests that Herring’s father, OAN founder Robert Herring, later sent the same or a similar spreadsheet to MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who has championed the false claim that Smartmatic and Dominion rigged the 2020 election.

The filing, from an ex-Dominion employee, says Robert Herring forwarded an email to Lindell that originated from his son, Charles, and that it contained “password information for employees of several voting systems providers.” The filing, from a defamation case against Lindell, said Charles Herring emailed those materials to Lindell in April 2022.

An attorney for Lindell didn’t respond to CNN’s request for comment.

The network, the two Herrings, and some of their on-air personalities are also being sued for defamation by Dominion, which was the target of similar 2020 election lies.

OAN settled a defamation suit in September with former Dominion executive Eric Coomer, whose case revealed how the network worked closely with Powell and others to lie about the election. DirecTV has also dropped the far-right network from its lineup, dealing a significant blow to the outlet, hitting the network’s viewership and revenue.

[njbill]

Rudy was recently seen working behind the counter of a diner in New Hampshire. They claim he was there to help out Trump, but I think he was simply working to make a few bucks. I think the Squid works the midnight shift at the same diner.

[Farfromgeneva]

Rudy was recently seen working behind the counter of a diner in New Hampshire. They claim he was there to help out Trump, but I think he was simply working to make a few bucks. I think the Squid works the midnight shift at the same diner.

Been on a super music kick for a couple of days. Got one for every occasion.

Like here.

https://youtu.be/uEK9oK02D1M?si=si_6ZkN8tpjBidNq

[Kismet]

I'm not particularly fond of Colin Cowherd but he nails the whole NFL-Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce thing

[NattyBohChamps04]

I'm not particularly fond of Colin Cowherd but he nails the whole NFL-Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce thing

The representative from Florida has something to say:



Why Conspiracy Theorists Think Taylor Swift Is A Pentagon ‘Psy-Op’

[MDlaxfan76]

I'm not particularly fond of Colin Cowherd but he nails the whole NFL-Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce thing

The representative from Florida has something to say:



Why Conspiracy Theorists Think Taylor Swift Is A Pentagon ‘Psy-Op’

pretty clever troll...!

[njbill]

Article III, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution says:

“Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.”

One would hope that Traitor Tucker will be immediately taken into custody for committing treason upon his return to the United States.

Giving aid and comfort to the enemy indeed.

[Farfromgeneva]

I'm not particularly fond of Colin Cowherd but he nails the whole NFL-Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce thing

Can’t listen to the guy. Just want to punch him every time he talks.

[njbill]

They say Trump’s New York criminal trial starting March 25 is scheduled to take about six weeks. Unless I am mixing this case up with another one, I’ve read that the trial will proceed four days a week, Monday through Thursday. I really really hope the media does not put Trump on TV every single day as he comes out of the courtroom as they have been doing of late. If they do, they will be falling into the same trap they fell into in 2016.

It’s OK with me if they cover the trial, but there is no need to put his ugly, lying mug on TV every day. What he says is not news.

[Brooklyn]

Am surprised that the recent news about Assange has not gotten any recent discussion on this forum:


https://www.foxnews.com/politics/julian ... next-month

Julian Assange's US extradition hearing wraps up in London, decision not expected until at least next month
The court is not expected to reach a verdict in Assange's case until March at the earliest


WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's hearing at the British High Court in London for his possible final appeal challenging his extradition to the U.S. concluded on Wednesday. The court is not expected to make a decision on the Australian publisher's fate until at least next month.

The two-day appeal hearing before a panel of two judges wrapped up after U.S. lawyers delivered arguments, as they seek to have Assange, 52, sent to the U.S. to face espionage charges for publishing classified U.S. military documents 14 years ago.

Lawyer Clair Dobbin, representing the U.S. government, claimed the case is based on "law, on evidence" and "not political inspiration," pushing back on accusations that Assange's prosecution is politically motivated.

"Julian is a political prisoner, and he has to be released," Assange's wife, Stella, said in a speech outside the court.


The judges overseeing the case, Victoria Sharp and Jeremy Johnson, said Wednesday they would take time to come to a verdict, and a ruling on Assange's fate is not expected until March at the earliest.

While the hearing could be Assange's final appeal attempting to block his extradition to the U.S., a full appeal hearing could come in the future if he wins in court this week. If he loses this appeal, Assange's only remaining option would be at the European Court of Human Rights, but his supporters fear he could be flown to the U.S. before that happens because the British government has already signed an extradition order.

Dobbin purported that Assange put innocent lives at risk and went beyond journalism in his efforts to obtain and publish classified U.S. government documents. She claims Assange encouraged and helped U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks published, and that doing so jeopardized lives.

But there is no evidence that WikiLeaks put anyone in danger by publishing the documents. It is also a common practice among journalists to ask a source to provide more material.

Dobbin claimed that Assange damaged U.S. security and intelligence services and "created a grave and imminent risk" by publishing hundreds of thousands of documents. She said these risks could harm and lead to the arbitrary detention of innocent people, including many who lived in war zones or under repressive regimes.

She said Assange encouraging Manning and others to hack into government computers and steal material meant that the WikiLeaks founder was "going a very considerable way beyond" a journalist gathering information.

Assange was "not someone who has just set up an online box to which people can provide classified information," she said. "The allegations are that he sought to encourage theft and hacking that would benefit WikiLeaks."

Lawyers for Assange argued during day one of the hearing on Tuesday that U.S. authorities are seeking to punish him for WikiLeaks' "exposure of criminality on the part of the U.S. government on an unprecedented scale," including torture and killings.

If he is extradited to the U.S., lawyer Edward Fitzgerald warned, there is "a real risk he may suffer a flagrant denial of justice."



more ...



As Assange's wife said, political prisoners face great peril and should be released in the interest of justice. On youtube this issue has garnered much attention because the patriots there want the full disclosure of the truth at all times. Sadly, very little attention has been given to the USA's other political prisoner Leonard Peltier who is now 79 years of age and in failing health.

[youthathletics]

Interesting:


https://x.com/WadeMiller_USMC/status/17 ... 22572?s=20

[NattyBohChamps04]

Interesting:


https://x.com/WadeMiller_USMC/status/17 ... 22572?s=20

I know right, he totally misunderstood what she said. That's twitter for ya.

[MDlaxfan76]

Interesting:


https://x.com/WadeMiller_USMC/status/17 ... 22572?s=20

Did you hear her full argument? Or just this snippet cherrypicked by a Christian Nationalist for a Twitter rant?

She went on, differentiating the natural law basis for human rights, including as contained in the Declaration of Independence (life, liberty and pursuit of happiness) as justification for rebellion against the tyranny of a King, and these natural rights are given by our Creator...not specifically the Christian God, much less Jesus, and those rights enumerated in the Constitution and its amendments thereafter. Such enumerated rights come from man's consent to be governed based on these rights, not from God, much less the Christian God.

She is arguing that extremist groups are claiming that all sorts of such rights come from the Christian God, as told to them and them alone, for use in governance.

Yup, THAT is a consistent thread of Christian Nationalism.
Its a-historical and actually un-American. But it's compelling propaganda.

[youthathletics]

Strange Firing by CBS.

https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/44 ... sts-files/

The timing of Herridge’s termination immediately raised suspicions in Washington. She was pursuing stories that were unwelcomed by the Biden White House and many Democratic powerhouses, including the Hur report on Joe Biden’s diminished mental capacity, the Biden corruption scandal and the Hunter Biden laptop. She continued to pursue these stories despite reports of pushback from CBS executives, including CBS News President Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews.

[Seacoaster(1)]

Strange Firing by CBS.

https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/44 ... sts-files/

The timing of Herridge’s termination immediately raised suspicions in Washington. She was pursuing stories that were unwelcomed by the Biden White House and many Democratic powerhouses, including the Hur report on Joe Biden’s diminished mental capacity, the Biden corruption scandal and the Hunter Biden laptop. She continued to pursue these stories despite reports of pushback from CBS executives, including CBS News President Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews.

Maybe she was an abrasive asshat in the workplace and treated her staff and subordinates badly. Am I wrong?

[NattyBohChamps04]

Paramount laid off 800 people. CBS News was a part of that and 20 employees were let go, including a number of reporters. But it was a conspiracy.

[Kismet]

Strange Firing by CBS.

https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/44 ... sts-files/

The timing of Herridge’s termination immediately raised suspicions in Washington. She was pursuing stories that were unwelcomed by the Biden White House and many Democratic powerhouses, including the Hur report on Joe Biden’s diminished mental capacity, the Biden corruption scandal and the Hunter Biden laptop. She continued to pursue these stories despite reports of pushback from CBS executives, including CBS News President Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews.

Maybe she was an abrasive asshat in the workplace and treated her staff and subordinates badly. Am I wrong?

maybe she was just overpaid. and her content didn't end up attracting any users from Fox (where she worked for many years before joining CBS)