FakeNews hurricane parodies run riot thanks to Weather Channel and CNN

 

First — The Weather Channel gets caught faking the strength of Hurricane Florence (in case you haven’t seen it).

The Weather Channel went on to defend their reporter:

“It’s important to note that the two individuals in the background are walking on concrete, and Mike Seidel is trying to maintain his footing on wet grass, after reporting on-air until 1:00 a.m. ET this morning and is undoubtedly exhausted,” a spokesperson wrote.

Then see the parodies:

 

Beware of shopping trolleys:

Anderson Cooper, star of CNN, finds the deepest ditchhe can report from (h/t WattsUp)

UPDATE: Ryan Maue asks and his readers tell him it is a photo from Hurricane Ike ten years ago.

 

Some on Twitter say the CNNshot is from 2008. Who knows? I can’t confirm.

See #CNN and their #FakeNews

 

People have died in the millionth fatal storm to hit humankind. But thousands have died thanks to FakeNews.

Commiserations to all those who have lost something (or someone) precious this weekend.

9.8 out of 10 based on 69 ratings

68 comments to FakeNews hurricane parodies run riot thanks to Weather Channel and CNN

  • #

    Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! 1ha!
    Not serfs out in all weather
    but inner-city Greens, purveyors
    of fake news fer raison d’etat.*

    *Globalist guv-uh-nance, that is.

    201

  • #
    Peter C

    The media’s love of exaggeration is well known.

    Parody is a good response. I loved those video cilps.

    But what happens when they actually lie. If those pictures of flooding were actually for some other place and at some other time, there should be accountability.

    200

    • #
      Ian George

      Peter,
      They’ve also lied about the ‘wet grass’ excuse.
      ‘“It’s important to note that the two individuals in the background are walking on concrete, and Mike Seidel is trying to maintain his footing on wet grass, after reporting on-air until 1:00 a.m.’
      At the 45sec point in the video, it shows one of the passerbys walking on the grass verge on the other side of the road.

      60

  • #
    Mal

    I just don’t believe anything I see on the news anymore. I want facts not bulldust.
    .
    However when I speak to people who have a bit of knowledge and worldly experience, there are more and more who also see the absurdity that we are seeing now.

    280

  • #
    theRealUniverse

    This is brilliant. They discuss hurricanes and how they ARENT more frequent or stronger..a must view.
    Rebutting Alarmism at the Global Climate Action Summit – Day 1
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2903&v=5_XSrrw4DDc

    150

  • #
    James Murphy

    Just as I started in the oil industry, and only a few weeks before I went to the drilling rig in question, there was a cyclone off the NW coast of Australia (like that’s never happened before!), and, due to some…errors in judgement, a semi-sub drilling rig was not evacuated.

    In order to keep themselves entertained, some of the people on the rig made some movies depicting how bad the weather was. First hand accounts report that it was far from pleasant, though not catastrophic.

    One person was filmed holding on to a hand rail, while someone else held their feet up (out of shot), making them look they were being blown horizontal by the cyclone. Needless to say, not only did the oil company get in trouble for not evacuating the rig, but the people who made and starred in these videos were…not welcomed back to that rig again… Stupid really – put a bunch of oil rig workers in that situation, and there is bound to be someone who will want to make fun of a serious situation.

    Fake news seems to have consequences for all except those who deserve it.

    250

  • #
  • #
    PeterS

    The leftist MSM are so blinded by their own lies they now have a licence to fake their reporting as often as necessary without fear of being caught out, and even when they do get caught out they pretend it doesn’t matter. The MSM have lost completely all credibility.

    150

    • #

      Re ‘licence to fake.’ The worrisome thing is, they have no fear
      of being caught out.

      Truth to data no longer matters? Oh Feynman!

      140

      • #
        NB

        MSM fake news has been obvious for at least the past two years. We can act as each other’s scouts for real news and discussion, such as theRealUniverse has done above. I know many do, but this needs to be a default understanding now.

        MSM/fake news – what’s new?

        130

  • #

    Whoops, I just linked to one already there in the post. Mine was off b*tchute (which goes to the naughty room because of the first four letters?) so I thought it was different.

    Anyway, great that you’ve seized on this, Jo. I reckon they do these things badly for a reason, not just because acting skills are a limited resource. It’s like they’re testing us, mocking us. Time to mock them back.

    The next round of fakery will probably be a contrite reform of the media by the media…wherein our freedom of speech will be limited further and the fakers will just change names and personnel. Reformed media will be like those reformed CEOs who took the humble train to Washington to show repentance to Obama for past sins. You can bet they knew bail-out would come after a little theatre, and you can bet they didn’t take the humble train back.

    The media’s contrition for fakery will be their biggest piece of fakery. But at least we’re forcing them to make an effort…and degenerates don’t like effort.

    90

    • #
      NB

      ‘contrite reform of the media by the media’
      Last night, channel flicking through the ABC, I saw an employee of the ABC recommending The Daily Telegraph not be permitted to charge market advertising fees, while recommending left leaning news collude to control the market. The ABC appeared to be putting forward an ABC staffer to advocate for anti-competitive behaviour. This would seem to be a violation of the law.
      Problem is, I am not sure what program this was on. I thought it said ‘Behind the News’ on the TV channel info, but I can’t find the discussion on that webpage. Anyone else see it?

      60

      • #
        NB

        Got it:
        Navigating The News
        Saturday, 15 Sep
        Series 1 | Episode 1 | What Is News?
        11:30 PM – 12:00 AM [30 mins]
        ctc CC Repeat | Repeated on Sunday 16 Sep at 6:55 PM

        Worth watching for the amazing arrogance of the ABC on display.

        50

        • #
          NB

          Whoops, Daily Mail

          Note the mixing up of the topics of reward for journalism and ‘trusted journalism’.

          Navigating The News
          46:15 mins
          Episode 1 What Is News?

          Host: Patricia Karvelas, Radio National, ABC News.
          Guests quoted below:
          Gavin Morris, Director of ABC News, Analysis, and Investigations
          Louisa Graham, Chief Executive of Walkley Foundation
          Nicholas Gray, Chief Executive Officer, Australian News Corporation

          Other guests:
          Lisa Davies, Editor, Sydney Morning Herald Fairfax Media Limited
          Simon Crerar, General Manager, Australia, Buzzfeed

          Commences at 40.09
          (Context begins at around 36.30)

          Gavin Morris, ABC:
          I was in a conversation recently with Google and one of the ideas I think we should be actively encouraging is changes in the ad sales rates around trusted content versus non-trusted content. You put a piece of rubbish up on Google or Facebook it gets the same rate of return as if you put a great piece of journalism up. Well, how difficult would it be to change that algorithm slightly to say a piece of local journalism that the algorithm has identified as trusted, is local, is valuable, is all of those things, and sure there are value judgements in that, but the algorithm is already making value judgements, what would be wrong with turning the dial up a bit on those articles that they get a bigger rate of return and a piece of Daily Mail crap that they’ve riped off from somebody else, turn that right down, and see how long that business model lasts. If the ad sales revenue that the Daily Mail is getting away with from stolen journalism doesn’t get a rate of return, we’ve solved the problem. So why can’t we do that? And why is the onus on us as an industry, when I think there is plenty of scope for us saying to Google, and Facebook, and all the other platforms, we can think about this in a different way if only you tweak the way you return value to the publishers.

          Nicholas Gray, News Corp:
          And they say, oh the algorithm is hard to change, and the engineers, you know, you’ve got to persuade them. Google can make cars drive by themselves.

          Patricia Karvelas, Host, ABC:
          Yeah, it’s so hard, isn’t it, it’s really hard for them. No it’s not hard for them, but it’s about a sense of unity. Actually I’ll get you on this Louise, as you’re kind of the umbrella, you’re friends with all of us, aren’t you. So, it is taking it to that kind of level isn’t it? A sense of a unified perspective on the future of what this topic is, on public interest journalism and on the importance in this country and in this democracy of enhancing that and growing that.

          Louisa Graham, Walkley Foundation:
          Yeah, look I think that’s right, and certainly the learnings that we’ve been receiving from people we’ve been talking to in the US is that there is a strong role for collaboration amongst media organisations, and we are seeing that a little bit now with the ABC and Fairfax but certainly that could work more broadly and really that is, I guess, with the interest of bringing us all together as an industry to establish some of these factors like what is good journalism, what is journalism, within that media landscape, and how we build that trust. But it is also about, again, the diversity of voices and sharing, so, and there is a role for the Walkleys to play, I guess, in bringing everyone together and working as an industry because that’s what is going to save us, rather than all being at loggerheads with each other. We are in crisis as an industry, disruption, like a lot of industries, so it is important that everyone works together.

          70

          • #
            NB

            ‘strong role for collaboration amongst media organisations’
            Indeed, this was in evidence when Alex Jones was banned from YouTube, Facebook and iTunes within a few hours of each other. Like or not what Jones says, free speech is all about permitting what you don’t like.
            But, of course, the story is much larger than that. Global warming, Trump, immigration, Clinton, are all the subject of a unified approach between many media organisations in the US, and, in concert with them in Australia, organisations such as the ABC and Fairfax.

            90

          • #
            NB

            Just to be clear, Gavin Morris of the ABC has admitted to actively lobbying Google to defund competitors, on bases that include whether their competitors’ journalism is ‘trusted’. He admits that an algorithm that did this would have to make ‘value judgements’, but he is ok with that. Not only that, he has used the ABC to promulgate and promote his proposal for collusion and anti-competitive behaviour.

            110

  • #
    wal1957

    I worked in media for many years.
    I can absolutely guarantee that they all do this BS.
    Sensationalise and distort anything for the ratings prize!
    The really sad part was that they justified their actions!

    No wonder then that people have no faith in the ‘news’ that they see on television or what they read in the newspapers. Nothing is what it seems!

    170

  • #
    Mark D.

    As I see it, the bigger problem is that all the mainstream media are trying to outdo each other. The average bloke can flick around from station to station and see one faked story that seems to support another faked story on a different channel…..when do we ever know if were told anything but lies?
    Lies by fakery or lies by omission are still lies! damn them, I used to like watching the news.

    80

    • #
      PeterS

      I’ve stopped regularly watching the news on TV about 20 years ago. I watch it very sparingly since then only to see if it has changed, and it has, for the worse. Some of them are like parrot shows diverting attention from the real issues, and others are mostly about fake news telling people the opposite of what is happening in the real world. It has become a profession in the news media. I can see the day coming soon when robots will need to be used to avoid an over reliance on humans to report parrot fashion the fake news and thus make it appear to be even more believable by the public. Then they will be automated. Automated journalism is already being trialled. For example, a robot journalist made its debut in a Chinese daily with a 300 characters-long article written in just a second. Google is funding a robot journalism project in which five reporters will produce 30,000 stories a month for local media. There are many other examples. George Orwell got one thing wrong – he didn’t think up of the idea that humans will be redundant in running the propaganda machine but that was understandable given the the concept of a computer at the time was a secret during the war with the code breaking Enigma machine not revealed until much later.

      81

  • #
    pat

    it is bizarre how FakeNewsMSM seem willing to self-destruct rather than return to straight reporting:

    14 Sept: Breitbart: CNN Ratings Down 41 Percent from Last Year
    by Justin Caruso
    Last week, CNN dropped a full 41 percent in the daytime TV ratings and fell 36 percent in primetime compared to the same week last year.
    AdWeek reports, “CNN ranked No. 6 across basic cable in total prime time viewers, and No. 5 in total day this past week. Despite the top 10 finishes, the network was -36 percent in prime time viewers, and -41 percent in total day viewers vs. the same week last year.”
    Not only did CNN see a devastating drop from last year’s ratings, the network was once again bested by its competitors. Fox News came in first place with during the day, while MSNBC came in second…

    The network has repeatedly seen embarrassing viewership losses compared to 2017. In August, the network lost 12 percent of its primetime viewers compared to 2017…
    During one week in August, the network dropped 23 percent during the day and 24 percent in primetime compared to the same week last year.
    The ratings slide isn’t the only recent embarrassment for CNN.

    This week, it was announced that reporter Jim Sciutto would begin co-hosting a morning program for the network, despite the fact that Sciutto had recently made serious errors and was a key figure in CNN’s ongoing fake news scandal over their misreporting of a story about Michael Cohen’s knowledge of a Trump Tower meeting with Russians…
    Jeffrey Toobin, an analyst for CNN, also humiliated the network further recently by falsely blaming Antifa violence on black Americans.
    https://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2018/09/14/cnn-ratings-down-41-percent-from-last-year/

    60

    • #
      RicDre

      “CNN ranked No. 6 across basic cable in total prime time viewers, and No. 5 in total day this past week. Despite the top 10 finishes, the network was -36 percent in prime time viewers, and -41 percent in total day viewers vs. the same week last year.”

      My first thought after seeing these statistics was that basic Cable must truly be dying if a network can loose 36 percent of its viewers and still be ranked 6th across basic Cable.

      50

  • #
    tom0mason

    Maybe the weather channel people have been listening to too many Goon Show reruns.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e61uC-5s9VU

    60

    • #
      Robert Swan

      I was expecting it to be the Goons line “Curse this wind Moriarty, I should never have eaten those balloons.”

      120

  • #
    NB

    I am not American, but I have heard MSNBC described as being even more biassed and inaccurate than CNN. If so, interesting that they rate several places above CNN.

    80

    • #
      Dave in the States

      That’s absolutely correct. Even leftys are sometimes appalled at MSNBC. Some people watch MSNBC just out of the spectacle of watching blatant Soviet level propaganda. Some are true believers that enjoy the confirmation bias.

      130

    • #
      RicDre

      “I have heard MSNBC described as being even more biassed and inaccurate than CNN.”

      This is true, but MSNBC doesn’t even try to hide its bias whereas CNN pretends to be an unbiased news outlet

      100

  • #
    Dave in the States

    It is noble cause corruption. During the US 2016 election both CNN and the NYT were called out for faking news stories about Trump. They justified it by saying we were facing an unprecedented threat in form of DJT.

    Once people start to believe their own BS about how noble their cause is, then it is easy step to justifying the means to achieve the supposed noble ends. Clergy reformers call it “lying for God.”

    130

    • #
      RicDre

      This reminds me of the story that Dan Rather published in 2004 to smear George W. Bush. When the story was proven to be false he stood by the story describing it as “fake but accurate”.

      110

  • #
    pat

    some may recall the attacks on Scott Pruitt’s alleged spending habits, which were never what was claimed.
    well, now it’s curtains for Nikki, or so the NYT thought:

    14 Sept: Washington Examiner: New York Times blames Nikki Haley for Obama-era spending decision on pricey curtains
    by Becket Adams
    The New York Times is at it again.
    The paper published a grossly misleading report Thursday evening suggesting U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is responsible for sizable spending decisions reportedly made by the Obama administration. Because the truth is more important now than ever or something…

    The report seems like bad news for Haley – until you get to the sixth paragraph. It states, “A spokesman for Ms. Haley said plans to buy the curtains were made in 2016, during the Obama administration. Ms. Haley had no say in the purchase, he said.”
    You’d think the author would get to the bottom of that detail before going public with a “Nikki Haley’s curtains” narrative. But you’d be wrong. And this is on top of the fact that paper itself reports that the “State Department decided in 2016 to find a new home for its top New York diplomat because of security concerns”!…

    As if the Time’s clear attempt to smear Haley wasn’t infuriating enough already, the report goes on to quote an Obama-era official who is shocked – shocked! – to learn of wasteful government spending…
    The story also quotes an Obama-era State Department official as defending the purchase. “All she’s got is a part-time maid, and the ability to open and close the curtains quickly is important,” Patrick Kennedy, former Undersecretary of State for Management, helpfully told the Times.
    That’s arguably the worst quote in the entire story and it doesn’t even come from any of Haley’s people! …

    ***The “Nikki Haley’s curtains” narrative has, of course, taken off in the press, with at least one competing news outlet similarly downplaying that the purchase was allegedly decided in 2016…

    ***Then there is the tweeting.
    MSNBC’s Kyle Griffin, whose entire job appears to consist of accumulating sweet, sweet “resistance” retweets, wrote, “The State Department spent $52,701 last year buying customized and mechanized curtains for Nikki Haley’s official residence, just as the department was undergoing deep budget cuts.”…

    ***The New York Times’ Jonathan Weismann said elsewhere, “For $52,701, Nikki Haley’s new taxpayer-funded curtains better be special.”
    His colleague Eric Lipton also shared the story on social media, characterizing it as “our latest update re housing/decor from the Trump-era diplomatic front.”

    A “Trump-era” descriptor for an Obama-era decision. Nicely done, truth-tellers.
    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/new-york-times-blames-nikki-haley-for-obama-era-spending-decision-on-pricey-curtains

    ***the story has a life of its own. it lives on online and will forever more. despite –

    15 Sept: HuffPo: State Department Spent $52,700 On Curtains For UN Ambassador Residence
    The New York Times walked back its story highlighting current U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley after the State Department said she wasn’t involved in the purchase.
    by Jenna Amatulli
    The Times’ original report indicated that the State Department spent the money specifically for Haley, but on Friday the newspaper walked back on the article, adding an editors’ note that said:

    NYT’s editor’s note: “An earlier version of this article and headline created an unfair impression about who was responsible for the purchase in question. While Nikki R. Haley is the current ambassador to the United Nations, the decision on leasing the ambassador’s residence and purchasing the curtains was made during the Obama administration, according to current and former officials. The article should not have focused on Ms. Haley, nor should a picture of her have been used.”END

    The headline of this story has been amended to reflect updates to the New York Times article clarifying when and for whom the curtains were ordered.
    https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/state-department-spent-52700-on-curtains-for-nikki-haley_us_5b9bc7c0e4b04d32ebf7dc74

    HuffPo naturally published the orginal fake headline & story and it still exists online:

    State Department Spent $52,700 On Curtains For Nikki Haley
    Huffington Post – 2 days ago

    Opinion | New York Times wrongs Nikki Haley with curtain headline
    Washington Post – 14 Sept 2018

    New York Times backtracks on a tale about some expensive curtains
    Washington Post · 1 day ago

    no surprise Fairfax thought this fake story would somehow be of interest to Australians (and possibly other Oz media did too). Fairfax still hasn’t made any corrections or made any mention of the story being fake:

    14 Sept: SMH: Nikki Haley’s view of New York is priceless. Her curtains? $73,286
    By ***Gardiner Harris, New York Times

    ***NYT had to make multiple corrections to a Gardiner Harris piece about another conservative as recently as May, but don’t expect the NYT to fire the guy:

    16 May: Washington Free Beacon: New York Times Issues Multiple Corrections to Story Attacking Mark Dubowitz, FDD Over Iran Nuclear Deal
    by David Rutz
    The New York Times on Wednesday issued multiple corrections to a story that wrongly linked Mark Dubowitz’s think tank to Israel’s Likud political party and overestimated his yearly salary.
    Gardiner Harris’ piece, which appeared in Monday’s print edition, reported…blah blah
    The newspaper also had to correct figures related to funding of conferences held by FDD and the Hudson Institute, another think tank…
    The article quoted multiple progressive figures who were strongly supportive of the Iran nuclear deal and angry with Dubowitz…

    40

  • #
    pat

    13 Sept: Washington Times: FBI’s ‘media leak strategy’ against Trump needed a complicit media
    By Larry O’Connor
    You can’t have a “media leak strategy” without plenty of willing accomplices in the media.
    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/sep/13/peter-strzok-lisa-page-needed-media-complicity-lea/

    14 Sept: Spectator: Never mind Paul Manafort, the Mueller inquiry is the biggest scandal in US history
    by Roger Kimball
    Most reports of the plea bargain duly note that Manafort is (as The Wall Street Journal put it) “the fifth associate of President Trump to plead guilty in connection with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.”
    “In connection with,” eh?
    The main thing to bear in mind about all of those guilty pleas—from those of General Mike Flynn and George Papadopoulos, who pled guilty to lying to the FBI, to Rick Gates, who had been in business with Paul Manafort—is that none of the pleas have anything to do with collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians, the putative reason for Mueller’s investigation in the first place…

    As I have observed many times, I believe this is part of the biggest political scandal in US history. It involves the mobilization of deep state actors in the Obama administration and the weaponization of the FBI and other parts of the Department of Justice.
    As Lee Smith noted in a superb summary of the case so far in RealClearInvestigations, this sprawling campaign had two phases, an offensive phase to discredit Trump and help elect Hillary Clinton during the campaign of 2016 and then the ongoing defensive phase, which is intended to discredit the Congressional investigation into criminal misconduct by people in the Obama administration, the Department of Justice, and the FBI…

    Someday, I predict, this complex and sordid tale of the abuse of power by the deep state will occupy a prominent place in the history books…
    https://spectator.us/2018/09/never-mind-paul-manafort-the-mueller-inquiry-is-the-biggest-scandal-in-us-history/

    70

    • #
      NB

      ‘I believe this is part of the biggest political scandal in US history’
      I think you are right. Participants must be terrified as they watch layer after layer being peeled back.

      100

  • #
    feral_nerd

    Well, duh! It’s a dead giveaway because Seidel is leaning the wrong way. You lean INTO heavy winds, for balance, not away from them.

    The storm disappointed in that it failed to deliver Armageddon, so they had to hype. Not exactly Meh, but close.

    120

  • #
    garyh845

    Let’s not forget that CNN (and others) have long been in the business of presenting fake – lying to the public – whatever they do. How about this one from Nov, 2017, when they Stocked the Audience and Controlled the Debate Questions at a nationally televised Democrat Party Presidential debate. NewsBusters, and others exposed and covered this pathetic organization colluding to steal a US Presidential election.

    All six “undecided voters” were set up to ask questions (controlled by CNN) at the debate were plants. This was fully exposed, and then the rest of our national mainstream media said nothing. How is that possible – they all support the collusion.

    CNN Stocked Audience and Controlled Thursday’s Debate Questions

    Guarantee you that it was much worse during the 2016 Presidential election.

    A personal comment. Noel Sheppard (knew him well), who wrote the post, passed away a few years back – way before his time. He is sorely missed.

    70

  • #
    Ruairi

    More people are now wide awake,
    To the fact that news can be fake,
    As the media feign,
    For political gain,
    In which journalists meekly partake.

    141

  • #
    Casey

    This isn’t new or news – the problem is that the RealityTV watching SheepPeople will watch this and believe without any checking.

    Didn’t JNova (or it might have been WUWT) have a story a few years ago about some Oz flood with a drowning girl… except the girl’s father wrote in to say it was his picture of her in a river flood in the USA, she was fine, AND the news people had no permission to use the photo.

    Mainstream news, ABC, BBC, etc… they are all just propaganda mouthpieces for either the Soros funded politicians or The Soros Group itself.

    70

  • #
    Mark M

    The following is not a parody.

    Oct 5 2017: U.N. chief hopes storms will sway climate skeptics like Trump

    “UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday he hoped recent devastating hurricanes in the Caribbean and southern United States would convince climate change skeptics like U.S. President Donald Trump that global warming is a “major threat.”

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-un-usa-climatechange/u-n-chief-hopes-storms-will-sway-climate-skeptics-like-trump-idUSKBN1C92HO

    How did that work out?

    Sept 11, 2018: Yes, you can blame President Trump for Hurricane Florence

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/09/11/yes-you-can-blame-president-trump-for-hurricane-florence/?utm_term=.63a9f37b3a97

    Sept 13, 2018: CNN blames Trump for hurricanes; his climate policies will lead to ‘80,000 unnecessary deaths’

    https://news.grabien.com/story-cnn-blames-trump-hurricanes-his-climate-policies-will-lead-8

    Sept 14, 2018: Once a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 140 mph, the hurricane was downgraded to a Category 1 on Thursday night.

    https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2018/09/14/1828345/hurricane-florence-decreases-speed-to-category-1-but-still-powerful-vidoe

    Winning.

    After beating the Bush dynasty, 16 Republicans, the FBI, the media, voter fraud cheaters, the political class, the Clinton dynasty, the Obamas, the elites in BOTH parties, he also beat tech companies that used their platforms to try and beat him.

    Now we see President Trump can control hurricanes, even after leaving the Paris Agreement.

    Thank you, President Trump.

    110

  • #
    Another Ian

    Fake News has been going on for quite a while.

    Recall Peter Sellars and co doing “All that’s best in British journalism” in the track on getting the Christine Keeler exclusive – done in the 1960’s.

    On “How to win an election or at least not lose by much” IIRC.

    30

  • #
    Roy Hogue

    Why bother with the term “fake News”? Why not call them what they are, liars?

    Be direct and to the point. If it’s fake it’s a lie.

    140

    • #
      Roy Hogue

      And it is quite amazing that President Trump can control the weather or that he can cause 80,000 deaths by controlling the weather. Wouldn’t you think that if he could cause 80,000 deaths by manipulating the weather he would do it so as to knock off the most troublesome and influential 80,000 Democrats and progressives in the way of his reform agenda? At least I sure would. Who could trace it back to me?

      But George Soros, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer (just to name few) are all still alive, proving with real live empirical evidence that Trump can no more control the weather than I can. He’s just a man after all and I’ll bet he puts his pants on one leg at a time the same way I do.

      How disappointing. CNN and MSNBC need a better tall story.

      110

    • #
      PeterS

      Very good point. After all as you say that’s exactly what they are doing – deliberately telling lies. If that guy faking the effect of high winds in a public broadcast did it say 50 years ago he would be sacked on the spot by his manager, and if he wasn’t the manager would be sacked as well. Yet we see such lies all the time on a daily basis in many areas. Such are the times. So anyone who trusts what the news media says is doing so with their brains switched off. It’s the same issue with politics. So many voters act like zombies when placing their vote on election day. It’s no wonder we get the government we deserve. The US showed us how we as a nation can break out of that stupor. The next federal election will be a big test. We don’t have someone like Trump but we do have the choice of electing a government headed by Morrison if he turns out to be OK, and if he turns out in due course he is not OK but just another fake leader then we do have the option to reject both major parties and allow one or more of the more reasonable minor parties to gain enough votes to put them in a position to form government with the LNP.

      80

  • #
    James Murphy

    News, particularly when it involves Trump, gets viewers, readers, or mouse-clicks – the so-called “Trump,bump” is an addictive means to increase revenue, so… when you make money, and your “journalists” are actually anti-Trump activists, why stop, and why report anything resembling the truth, that requires effort, and some modicum of respect for the established audience.

    40

  • #
    Don A

    Is anyone going to acknowledge, review, comment or deride this conference? https://www.portoconference2018.org/uploads/1/1/7/3/117342822/porto_conference_volume_2018_revised.pdf Looks like this should kill the Paris (non) Accord

    40

    • #

      From the above pdf. The iceman cometh…

      Nils-Axel Mörner Paleogeophysics & Geodynamics, Stockholm,
      Sweden,morner@pog.nu Independent Committee on Geoethics,
      https://geoethic.com/

      ‘During all the Grand Solar Minima in the last 600 years –
      i.e. the Spörer Minimum 1440 -1460, the Maunder Minimum
      1687 – 1703 and the Dalton Minimum 1809 – 1821 – northwest
      Europe experienced Little Ice Age climate conditions(Fig.
      1; [1]). Cold Arctic water penetrated all the way down to
      middle Portugal. The Northern branches of the Gulf Stream
      severely weakened. At the same time, however, the southern
      branch of the Gulf Stream increased bringing hot equatorial
      water to the region of Gibraltar and the Canary Islands.
      This area experienced Little Ice Age interglacial climate
      conditions.No doubt, we are now heading towards a new Grand
      Solar Minimum at about 2030 – 2050(e.g. [2]). Therefore,
      we are likely to experience similar climate conditions as
      were the case during the last Grand Solar Minima; i.e.Little
      Ice Age conditions in NW Europe [2, 3].

      This is a scenario in 100% opposition to the one proposed \
      by the IPCC and agreed upon at the Paris Climate Conference,
      where global temperature is continually going to rise as a
      function of atmospheric increase in CO2.’

      60

  • #
    Hanrahan

    My favourite CNN staged event was a story on a Ford that has a reputation of catching fire so they got one, overfilled the tank, fitted an incorrect fuel cap and put a fire lighter under it. They drove another car into it and guess what? It caught alight. They don’t even blush when they are caught out.

    40

  • #
  • #
    pat

    16 Sept: Weatherzone: A bit late to be this cold
    by Brett Dutschke
    Eucla on the Nullarbor had its coldest morning this late in the year in 60 years, dipping to 1.1 degrees. Victoria’s Longerenong and Walpeup had their coldest morning this late in the year in more than 50 years of records, recording a minimum of -3.8 and -0.8 degrees respectively…

    It was the coldest this late in the year in 36 years in South Australia’s Clare (-1.4 degrees), 24 years in Victoria’s Hunters Hill (-2.6 degrees), more than 20 years in Western Australia’s Newdegate (-2.9 degrees) and 19 years at New South Wales’ Mt Boyce (-1.1 degrees).
    It got even colder on the Alps, -7.6 degrees at Falls Creek (a 12-year low for this late in the year), -8.0 at Mt Hotham (11-year low for this late in the year) and -8.6 degrees at the top of Thredbo…
    Today has potential to be the coldest day this late in the year in a few decades in parts of Tasmania, Victoria and NSW with temperatures only staying five-to-10 degrees below average during the day…ETC
    http://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/a-bit-late-to-be-this-cold/528493

    16 Sept: 9News: Temperatures plunge up to 10 degrees below average across Australia’s south
    The mercury has plummeted up to 10 degrees below average across southern Australia as a strong front moved across the region.
    Frost formed in all of the southern states and was severe in some areas this morning, with temperatures dipping five-to-10 degrees below average.
    Walpeup in the Victorian Mallee had its coldest September morning in 23 years and coldest morning this late in the year in more than 50 years of records, recording a minimum of -0.8 degrees.

    A 24-year-old record for this time of the year was shattered in Victoria’s Hunters Hill, where temperatures hit an icy -2.6 degrees.
    A 20-year-old record was also broken in Western Australia’s Newdegate – -2.9 degrees.
    South Australia’s Clare reached -1.1 degrees, putting an end to a 16-year-old record, while Woomera plunged to 3.4 degrees.
    The chill was most felt however on the Alps.
    Falls Creek reached a 12-year low of -7.6 degrees at Falls Creek, while Mt Hootham had a reading of -8.0 and the summit of Thredbo dropped to -8.6 degrees…
    https://www.9news.com.au/2018/09/16/08/29/cold-weather-record-breaking-temperature-australia-south

    theirABC’s only coverage, as far as I can tell, and it’s not even a “cold spell” in the headline, just “A CHILLY NIGHT”:

    16 Sept: ABC: Frost damage dashes farmers’ hopes of record harvest, as Perth shivers through chilly night
    By Gian De Poloni
    A record-breaking cold spell in Western Australia’s agricultural heartland has shattered farmers’ hopes of enjoying a bumper crop harvest.
    Temperatures in the southern Wheatbelt dipped between 0 and minus 5 degrees Celsius on both Saturday and Sunday morning, while the Great Southern town of Newdegate recorded its lowest-ever temperature of minus 4.3 degrees…

    Farmers woke to discover heavy frost gripping their wheat and barley crops, which were expected to deliver a combined 14 million tonne harvest this year.
    “First impressions was that it was obviously pretty severe,” (Kojonup farmer Dan Ladyman) said.
    “It wasn’t like the shadows were just frosted, it was a complete white out.”…
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-16/wa-farmers-facing-frost-damage-as-chilly-spell-sweeps-south/10253186

    20

  • #
    pat

    comment in moderation re: 16 Sept: Weatherzone: A bit late to be this cold

    10

  • #
    pat

    17 Sept: 9News: Putin’s big gamble in Australia’s ‘back yard’
    By Richard Wood
    Russian President Vladimir Putin will tilt his foreign policy towards engagement with some of Australia’s key partners in the Asia Pacific, a leading think tank report warns.
    The document – ‘Going Legit? The foreign policy of Vladimir Putin’ – by the Lowy Institute’s Bobo Lo sets out the main drivers and goals of the Russian leader’s dealings with the world…
    And the “cornerstone” of his tilt to the Asia Pacific will be developing relations with China – Australia’s largest trading partner…

    But there are risks in this approach for Putin.
    Xi is already an established world figure who has made China increasingly influential in tackling the global challenges of free trade, ***climate change and globalisation…
    https://www.9news.com.au/2018/09/17/11/08/putin-to-gamble-on-bigger-russian-role-in-asia-says-australian-think-tank

    author of Lowy’s report, Bobo Lo:

    Brookings Bio: Bobo Lo is an independent analyst and former Head of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House. (Royal Institute of International Affairs) in London. He is a nonresident fellow with the Lowy Institute for International Policy. He was a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Moscow Center. Previously, he served as first secretary and then deputy head of mission at the Australian Embassy in Moscow (1995–99)

    World Economic Forum: Bobo Lo: MA, Oxford; PhD, University of Melbourne. 1995-99

    17 Sept: Lowy Institute: Going legit? The foreign policy of Vladimir Putin
    Putin’s foreign policy will remain grounded in long-standing assumptions about Russia, the West, and international order.
    by Bobo Lo
    The international order and global governance
    The biggest challenge Russia faces is to reinvent itself as a rule-maker in a new world order…
    The US-led order is imploding; the West is losing its monopoly on ‘universal’ norms and values; and the centre of gravity in world affairs is shifting to the non-West…
    Under Xi Jinping, Beijing has become increasingly influential in addressing twenty-first century challenges, such as economic globalisation, free trade, and climate change…

    Stabilising relations with the West?
    For the time being at least, Putin will reserve his options. He will look to maintain a personal rapport with Trump, in the hope (rather than the expectation) that the US president will rein in the hawks in his own administration and Congress. But even if Trump is unable to deliver, as seems highly likely, Putin may choose to exercise strategic patience nonetheless, satisfied in the knowledge that Trump’s actions have already done much to discredit the United States in the eyes of its allies and partners…
    https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/going-legit-foreign-policy-vladimir-putin

    10

  • #
    pat

    16 Sept: AFR: China ramps up soft power push in Australia with marketing campaign for state-owned broadcaster
    by Max Mason, Angus Grigg
    China is spending more than half a million dollars on an advertising campaign to promote its state-owned broadcaster in Australia, as Beijing seeks to soften its image internationally and establish itself as an alternative to US leadership in the region.
    Billboards for CGTN, the foreign language arm of CCTV, have popped up in capital cities across Australia to promote the news and current affairs channel, which airs on Foxtel and Fetch. The campaign is being run across French out-of-home advertising giant JCDecaux’s street furniture network on footpaths and bus shelters.

    It is believed to have been booked by JCDecaux’s international sales division for a three-week run in major Australian cities. The advertising has specific Australian references with animals such as kangaroos and wombats with links back to China with pandas…
    When launching the channel, Chinese President Xi Jinping said its mission was to “tell China stories well”, suggesting the Communist Party views the Western media as biased towards the country and overly focused on negative stories…
    In 2008 China’s state media said the party had committed $US6 billion to the global expansion of its media outlets, a push that has largely failed to deliver Beijing the soft-power bounce it craves, according to David Bandurski, a director of non-for-profit research firm China Media Project…

    China’s soft power push into Australia has included paying for advertising supplements in major newspapers published by Fairfax Media and funding Confucius Institutes at universities across the country…
    https://www.afr.com/business/media-and-marketing/tv/china-ramps-up-soft-power-push-in-australia-with-marketing-campaign-for-stateowned-broadcaster-20180913-h15d1h

    10 Sept: AFR: China and Australia deepen blockchain links
    by James Eyers
    A group of Australian blockchain start-ups, including Labrys, Beam and AgriDigital, are in Shanghai this week, on a trade mission organised by Austrade and the Australian Digital Commerce Association.
    Over the weekend, the entrepreneurs completed a boot camp run by members of the embassy, including a session on how to protect their intellectual property. On Monday, they visited several of China’s largest fintech companies, including $US150 billion-valued ($211 billion) Ant Financial’s Shanghai headquarters in the city’s Pudong district…

    Ant operates the world’s largest online and mobile payments platform – with 520 million users. It has also been investing in blockchain, devoting part of its blockbuster $US14 billion Series C funding round earlier this year to the new technology.
    The delegation will then hit the Wangxiang 4th Global Blockchain Summit, which is being held at W Shanghai The Bund on Tuesday and Wednesday…
    Ant Financial’s parent company, the internet giant Alibaba, has made 90 patent applications focused on blockchain-related technologies, according to a report in iPR Daily, an IP trade publication…

    With the exception of ASX’s project to replace its CHESS equities clearing and settlement system with blockchain, many pilots of the technology in Australia are merely dipping toes in the waters.
    Nevertheless, China is paying close attention to Australia’s role chairing the International Standards Organisation (ISO) group (known as Technical Committee 307), which is developing standards for blockchain.
    China sees Australia as a more trustworthy leader of this work than, say, the United States or Russia, which also wanted to run this committee.
    ***Chair of the ISO/TC 307 Craig Dunn will tell the Wangxiang summit that Australia wants China closely involved in the standard setting…

    There’s an irony in China embracing blockchain, given the technology was initially designed to circumvent state control…
    But China’s government – just like regulators abroad in many Western jurisdictions that are also exploring the technology – are more likely to be interested in blockchain’s ability to create greater transparency around transactions, which will allow authorities to conduct more detailed oversight and monitoring.
    As The Economist put it recently: “Shorn of their anonymity, distributed ledgers can be a boon for regulators: they can provide visibility, for instance on who owns what.”…
    https://www.afr.com/technology/china-and-australia-deepen-blockchain-links-20180905-h14ycd

    30

  • #
    robert rosicka

    Just listening to ABC radio and an interview about a CEO of a supermarket and his decision to remove strawberries from the shelves amid the needle scare .

    Abc – have you ever seen anything like this before

    Ceo – not for a long time .

    Abc summing up the interview ,

    Ceo has never seen anything like this before !

    And they wonder why they cop the criticism they get !

    40

  • #
    sophocles

    A land-falling hurricane. Like: that’s never happened before nor even befive.

    “The World’s Worst Hurricane” was barely (if actually) Cat-1 on land fall. But they’ll do it all over again—falling all over each other to show they can be more asinine than the next reporter to the rest of the world—for the next one.

    I did enjoy the Cretinous Coprocephalic “leaning into the ferocious wind.” The movement of his clothing showed he was pointed rear-end first into the wind—it was coming from behind him.

    Wrong Way, José!

    It didn’t even need the two pedestrians strolling around behind him, although they sure helped. Wot a Dumb Cretinous Coprocephalic.

    50

  • #
    Greg in NZ

    Just got back from a week’s snowboarding Mt Ruapehu – calm, blue sky and shiploads of snow after the blizzard, no crowds, carving down the slopes like a man half my age [and somewhat possessed to boot] – did I miss anything?

    My only ‘connection’ to the outside world was catching up on gossip [the news] while soaking in thermal hot springs at night under the stars, recuperating… then driving home today, heard on the radio Queenstown got snotted on with half-a-metre of new snow on Coronet Peak –

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/107144973/skifields-promise-epic-day-after-record-season-snowfall

    Ah yes, September, my favourite time of year, when The Don causeth both hurricane and typhoon surf, he also doth causeth blizzards and snow storms and freezing temperatures. And all because carbon. Or Paris. Or sumpthink™.

    10

  • #
    angry

    CNN…..Corrupted News Network!

    10

  • #
    Reed Coray

    My thought after watching the Weather Channel’s 66-second Youtube Clip is that the reporter is trying to develop a new dance and wants it to be named after him. The “Hustle” would be an appropriate name for the dance. Wait, that name is already taken.

    00