Sunday, January 19, 2020

Opuscula

Trump fails basic
Journalism rule:
Cite your sources


PRESIDENT TRUMP PUT HIS foot in his moth — once again — when he told Americans no U.S. personnel were injured by Iranian missiles falling on Iraq.

In truth, (at least) 12 Americans were injured.

Trump lied.

I SUSPECT that the president was parroting what his military advisors told him.

Problem is, Trump failed to cite his source.

That’s bad management.

Ever cub reporter knows — or at last in my time knew — that sources must be cited. “Anonymous sources” were discouraged and always suspect (except at the New York Times).

Shoe comic by Brookins & MacNelly for 18 JAN 2020

What Trump should have said was “my military commanders tell me no American was injured.”

They probably DID claim zero injuries and the injuries — allegedly non-fatal and caused by nearby explosions — initially went unreported.

That happens.

I did not, however, hear the president back track on the “no injuries” claim, nor did I hear him say where he got his (mis)information.

The president has a habit of putting his foot in his mouth or letting his Twitter finger twitch in a foolish fashion. He embarrasses the nation with his loose tongue and fast fingers.

    For all that, at least he is DOING something that needs to be done and trying, despite Democrat opposition, to do almost everything he promised Americans he would do.

I had hoped VP Mike Pence would rein in Trump’s propensity to go off half-cocked, making himself look foolish even to loyal followers. Apparently that role is not in the VP’s job description. Pity.

Trump doesn’t need the Democrat-controlled House to make him look bad; his knee jerk reactions do enough damage.

Fortunately, his credibility as a president IS, if not “making America great again,” at least gaining back some of the respect lost by the last two pantywaist administrations (Bush and Obama).

Meanwhile the Democrats are in Chicken Little mode, crying “the sky is falling.”

    One of Sen. Bernie Sander’s staffers, Kyle Jurek, is predicting “cities burning,” Soviet gulags, and the execution of “reactionaries” (see https://tinyurl.com/rzke65k). It’s hard to tell WHO will be burning cities, setting up Soviet gulags and executing “reactionaries” whoever they are — disgruntled Democrats perhaps, accustomed to rioting in the streets?

If Trump IS re-elected, will the Hollywood elite who promised to leave the country if he won in 2016 finally keep their word and leave? Not likely, more is the pity.

The bottom line for Trump and his advisors is to learn to CITE YOUR SOURCES. It is better then making a meal of show leather.

(Image of Charlie Chaplin from https://tinyurl.com/rs4fux6)



PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

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