Here are my observations on the news of the day.
THE DOUBLE STANDARD AGAIN – Viewers who still watch Saturday Night Live, could always count on the left-leaning writers to produce a negative sketch about a topical subject. HotAir.com reports, however, that there was no mention of the sexual abuse charges against the controversial movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. As I wrote in yesterday’s post, Weinstein was a big contributor to Democrat campaigns and was a bundler for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.
In addition, every late-night talk show host – Colbert, Kimmel, Noah, Fallon, Meyers, Maher – failed to crack a joke about Weinstein’s activities revealed on Thursday morning. They did, however, continue the push for better gun control.
Meet Selena Zito, a real journalist.
EVER HEAR OF SELENA ZITO? If you have come to this blog since Donald Trump’s victory in November 2016, probably not, unless you are one of those souls who searches the Internet for real journalism. I became interested in Zito during the presidential campaign, when her August 22, 2016 piece, “Stumped by Trump’s success? Take a drive outside US. Cities,” came to my attention.
“If you drive anywhere in Pennsylvania,” she wrote, “from the turnpike to the old US routes to the dirt roads connecting small towns like Hooversville with ‘bigger’ small towns like Somerset, you might conclude that Donald Trump is ahead in this state by double digits.” She wrote about counting 100 Trump signs in one small town, more than 100 in Ruffsdale. Meanwhile, she wrote of the television pundits droning on how badly Trump was losing in Pennsylvania.
Following Trump’s win, Hadas Gold, writing in Politico, told of Zito’s reporting on Trump in Pennsylvania, and how she was mocked by fellow reporters and social media trolls for her anecdotal reporting, including the one she wrote how Trump won over a bar full of undecideds and Democrats. “No one’s laughing at her now,” wrote Gold.
Back in Ruffsdale last month, Zito bylined a piece, “In this part of the US, people are rooting for Trump more than ever.” Nearly 100,000 voters in the state switched parties from Democrat to Republican. “(While) not approving of everything the president does doesn’t mean his voters have stopped supporting him,” says Zito, “(they) aren’t just changing party allegiance, they’re crystallizing a new identity; as common-sense Americans bound together against seemingly hostile liberals, who disdain their way of life.”
If you are interested in Zito’s latest piece datelined Erie, Pennsylvania, “This die-hard Democratic city is about to turn Republican,” click here.
IT’S TIME YOU READ THE OTHER SIDE of the story on those charges of the cozy relationship between Republicans and the National Rifle Association, and Jonah Goldberg’s piece in the N.Y. Post, “The true secret of the NRA’s success,” lays it out.
Jonah Goldberg reveals the truth about NRA money. (quotesgram.com)
While The New York Times and The Washington Post have chronicled how much money the NRA has given to Republican congressman; $3,533,294 since 1998, according the Post, Goldberg reports.
“Op-ed pages have been suffused with claims that the NRA has bought Republicans with blood money, stiffing the popular will and thwarting democracy in the process. There’s just one problem: It’s not true,” writes Goldberg.
Admitting that the NRA has given a good amount of money to Republican politicians, and quite a few Democrats, too, Goldberg asserts that “the NRA is a bit player” in Washington.
While the Post makes a big deal over the NRA’s $3.5 million in donations over nearly 20 years, Goldberg notes that the legal profession contributed $207 million in 2016 alone. Anti-global warming activist Tom Seyer gave $90 million, all to Democrats.
Goldberg concedes that NRA-related PACs bundle additional cash, but it’s still “a fraction of what big labor and the trial lawyers pony up.”
“The simple reality is that the NRA doesn’t need to spend a lot of money convincing politicians to protect gun rights,” says Goldberg, “All it needs to do is spend a little money on clarifying that a great many of those politician’s constituents care deeply about gun rights.”
Four out of ten Americans have a gun their household, according to Pew Research, and 73 percent of the owners say they cannot imagine not owning one.
