Tag: Republican

‘Hyperpartisan’ right-wing news sites are thriving in Minnesota

The Nieman Journalism Lab has some bad news.

In a study tracking hundreds of “hyperpartisan” news websites across the country, the Harvard-based organization has exposed many that are “masquerading” as state and local reporting. In reality, they’re often funded and operated by “government officials, political candidates, PACS, and political party operatives.”

Based on previous research by Columbia University’s Priyanjana Bengani, Neiman sifted through these hundreds of urls and pinpointed them on a map of the U.S., all to study how these left or right-leaning news sources are being deployed and where. Minnesota has at least 15 of these little pins studded across the metro and in the greater regions of the state – all with a conservative tilt.

In fact, the vast majority of the sites listed in our state belong to the same network: Metric Media, which claims to have over 1,000 different news sites. Titles include SW Minnesota Today, SC Minnesota News, and South Hennepin News.

‘Carnage,’ ‘radicals,’ ‘overthrow the government’: How Fox and other conservative media cover the protests

Washington Post logoConservative news outlets and pundits covering the protests erupting across the country this week have mostly emphasized images of destruction and chaos, blaming “organized” elements for the mayhem and framing President Trump’s calls for a military response as necessary to gain order.

Echoing Trump, some were quick to attribute the violence, without much evidence, to “antifa,” a loosely knit faction of far-left activists known for physically confronting far-right radicals that Trump tried to designate a domestic terrorist organization on Sunday.

“Unfortunately, far-left radicals unleashed this carnage, this destruction across American cities,” Sean Hannity, Fox News Channel’s most popular prime-time opinion host, said on Monday night. His colleague Laura Ingraham went so far as to call it an attempt to “overthrow” the government. Continue reading.

The Trump Campaign is Deplying Phone Location-Tracking Technology

President Donald Trump’s reelection effort has retained the services of a technology company that specializes in the mass collection of smartphone location data, which can be used to track voters for political targeting purposes.

Phunware, an Austin, Texas-based firm, announced the connection in a little-noticed press release in October, touting “new and existing customer wins including American Made Media Consultants,” the consulting firm set up this year by Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale to handle advertising services for a variety of official Trump reelection PACs. The release noted that the deal was signed in conjunction with the Trump-Pence 2020 reelection effort.

A growing subset of advertising firms rely on data brokers that use third-party apps — from popular mobile games to apps used for checking the weather, perfecting a selfie, and online banking — to harvest vast troves of information about potential voters. Phunware, in a section of its website, discusses the company’s ability to obtain GPS location data and the Wi-Fi network used by an individual, as well as user data that can infer an “individual’s gender, age, lifestyle preferences” — potential tools for identifying and influencing voters. Continue reading.

Economist Paul Krugman explains why Republicans are worse than Scrooge: Their economic policies aren’t merely self-centered — they’re ‘openly vicious’

AlterNet logoDuring the Christmas season, one often finds liberals and progressives equating Republican economic policies with Charles Dickens’ fictional 19th Century character Ebenezer Scrooge. But economist Paul Krugman, in a New York Times column published two days before Christmas, explains why he now finds Republican/Scrooge comparisons problematic.

“It’s common, especially around this time of year, to describe conservative politicians who cut off aid to the poor as Scrooges; I’ve done it myself,” Krugman explains. “But if you think about it, this is deeply unfair to Scrooge.”

Modern-day Republicans, Krugman observes, are overtly cruel to the poor in ways that never occurred to Scrooge. Continue reading

Republicans feel obligated to ‘assault the English language’ with terrible grammar in order to show that they’re true conservatives: report

AlterNet logoThe conservative movement in the United States used to pride itself on having intellectuals like George Will and the late National Review founder William F. Buckley, who spoke with a posh Mid-Atlantic accent that sounded quasi-British. But these days, many right-wing politicians and media figures champion a certain anti-intellectualism —and journalist Christian Schneider, in an article for the conservative website The Bulwark, notes that some Republicans go out of their way to butcher the English language even if they have Ivy League educations.

One example, Schneider notes, is referring to the Democratic Party as “the Democrat Party.” And Republican Sen. Josh Hawley is among the offenders: the Missouri senator, Schneider writes, “fancies himself a salt-of-the-earth Midwesterner who doesn’t truck with fancy elites” — even though he attended Yale Law School.

“Saying ‘Democrat’ instead of ‘Democratic’ has become a shibboleth — a verbal handshake to signal that you’re on Team Red Hat,” Schneider explains. “It’s about as annoying as people rolling their r’s when ordering a burrito to prove they once vacationed in Cozumel. But whatever. Triggering Democrats has become so important to Republicans that they’re willing to assault the English language if the people who like good grammar are the bad guys.” Continue reading

Republicans Don’t Just Want to Win—They Want to Rig the Game

The following article by Michael Tomasky was posted on the Daily Beast website August 16, 2018:

This is the party they have been becoming since the Brooks Brothers riot, and in Trump they have found their leader.

Credit: Isaac Brekken, Getty

Some friends and I were musing in this post-Omarosa moment about what Republicans would do if a tape in fact emerged of Donald Trump saying the n-word. They’d denounce him, of course. And I’m sure that on some level, most of them would find it genuinely offensive.

But what would they, you know, do? One assumes that Tim Scott and Mia Love, the two African American Republicans on Capitol Hill, would be awfully worked up. Among the remaining 285 white ones, a couple would give thundering floor speeches, probably the same old suspects, Flake and Corker, who are retiring. Ben Sasse would hit social media, as is his ineffectual custom. Then, if recent history is any guide, they’d do… nothing. Another controversy would erupt, the n-word story would move out of the cable-news cycle, and the Republicans would skate away.

The question is why. The conventional wisdom answer, one I’ve believed myself, is “they’re afraid of Trump’s base.” That’s kind of true, but I have come to believe that isn’t the reason.

View the complete post here.

Poll: Corruption message gaining traction against GOP

The following article by Natasha Korecki was posted on the Politico.com website July 17, 2018:

Last week, Vice President Pence pointed to a humming economy and the Republican tax plan as marquee selling points as he toured a series of competitive Midwestern House districts to boost candidates. Credit: Manuel Balce, Ceneta, AP Photo

The Trump administration’s scandals threaten to take a toll on Republicans in battleground districts this fall, according to new polling suggesting “culture of corruption” messaging is gaining traction.

Fifty-four percent of voters across 48 Republican-held congressional districts said Republicans are “more corrupt” than Democrats, compared with 46 percent who said Democrats are “more corrupt.”

According to the online survey of 1,200 registered voters, conducted for the progressive Center for American Progress Action Fund from July 2-5, an even higher number of independents hold Republicans responsible for corruption: 60 percent.

View the complete post on the Politico.com website here.