02/03/17
From an Angry Reader:
Re: Fake News: Postmodernism By Another Name
While I thought the article was well written and cited several good specific examples. I find is a bit disingenuous that only the progressive movement is called out. Perhaps it would be worth mentioning the “Swift Boat” stories that were promulgated against John Kerry. The concept of fake news is used by both sides of the political spectrum for the purpose of “flash blinding” the masses in the middle to move them to be more in line with the agenda of the author of the false narrative. A story is created to convince the general audience that there is an “outrage” that must be addressed. One of the more recent was of a Muslim Arab immigrant who had four wives and 24 children living on welfare that amounted to more than $300,000 in cash per year. Now we have shut down immigration. If that was the goal of the “fake news”, to confuse the issue by fostering “outrage”, it seems to have worked.
I agree with the point that “fake” news is also just poor journalism in many cases. But, I find the right is up to their ass in the BS, too. The supposed candid “video tape” of Planned Parenthood that turned out to be “lie”, because it was selectively edited to misrepresent the actual discussion, is an example. I don’t accept that this behavior is right or ethical from either side. But, it appears you have adopted a “well our shit doesn’t stink” approach in the article so we won’t talk about it. Sorry to say it, but in fact it does stink. My solution is to be skeptical of all news and especially anything that is intended to foment “outrage” in the readers/viewers. I felt pretty certain that your article was treading close to that “rage against the progressive media” and not really observant of the whole problem. The creators of this BS are seldom called on it from either side. With a wink they just go back and start working on the next false narrative. Back in the sixties they said “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” Today we can update that to, “Don’t trust anyone.”
Fake news is designed to target a specific audience. Its goal is emotionalism and not about presenting objective facts. Your argument is that this is “acceptable” to the progressives. But, they hate it when is happens to them. So I don’t believe that they actually swallow the whole postmodernist meme you have described. Just like the right, when it is to their advantage they play around with the facts to “emotionalize” the issue and try to bury any objective rational discussion.
Stay the course, no compromise. — Karl Rove
Rick Barrett
Reply from Victor Davis Hanson:
Dear Angry Reader Rick Barrett,
I don’t think you really read the article.
I mentioned that all politicians spin and distort, as is the nature of politics since the Athenian ekklêsia. But the media has a particular and partisan propensity to highlight “hands up, don’t shoot”-like fake news to advance the progressive media on the postmodern notion that the exalted ends justify any means necessary.
Your “Swift Boat” example I think makes my case; it is the bookend to the 2004 fake memos that Dan Rather peddled about George Bush’s supposed AWOL episode. The media promulgated Rather’s clearly false story; in contrast, it attacked the Swift Boaters, whose charges ranged from challenging Kerry’s recollections of his war service, his congressional testimony, and charges of American atrocities. While both attacks on the two presidential candidates were clearly political, the media promulgated one, but not the other, although the Swift Boaters had at least offered a few legitimate queries in a way not true of the clearly forged Bush documents.
The Planned Parenthood stealth tape was selectively edited, but no one has denied the general charge of organ trafficking caught on tape.
Faking narratives is as old as the Greeks (read Demosthenes), but what is different is that the mostly liberal media, by and large, choose far more often to traffic in stories like the Duke rape case, the Tawana Brawley hoax, “white Hispanic” George Zimmerman and his edited 911 tape, “mattress girl,” or the Virginia fake rape charge—on the notion that these mythologies are advancing social justice and therefore acquire a sort of truth regardless of facts, or lack of same.
And I further pointed out that the media’s fake narratives are the natural dividend of 30 years of academic postmodernist thought that insisted facts were mere narratives and had to be deconstructed on the basis of race, class, and gender privilege to assess their validity.
I don’t think the Left “hates” fake news at all or it would have cried foul about the Duke or Virginia cases; the mainstream media rarely concocts stories that advance conservative causes, so Leftists have little to be angry about other than an occasional outlier story that morphs into a crisis of “fake news.” In our world, Trump’s versions of “if you like your health plan, you can keep it” distortions become “fake news!”; a Time reporter’s false story of a missing Martin Luther King bust from the Oval Office is picked up and spreads because it “proves” that Trump has a racist agenda and that “fact” is deemed a good thing.
To sum up:
1) All politicians, as I wrote, spin and distort. So do all media outlets on occasion for political purposes.
2) But the great majority of the most common fake news involves race, class, and gender issues and are passed off as true because they are felt by the media to advance a higher truth that is not predicated on facts or data.
3) And such narratives gain traction because our universities have long taught that truth is a fiction and narratives are branded true or false depending on their currency of power—and thus the Left needs to invest in stories that advance social justice, even if the facts, as ascertained by arbitrary and privileged methods, do not support such narratives.
Two final points: why does the Left always resort to profanity? Your talk of excrement (“sh*t”) offers no enhancement to your argument.
And why do you (quis custodiet ipsos custodes?) peddle in fake news with falsehoods like. “Now we have shut down immigration”? How does a temporary ban on arrivals from seven war-torn countries of the Middle East and environs, affecting less than 1% of all immigrants, constitute “shutting down immigration.” Is that really true or a fake narrative that becomes “true” because its ends are deemed noble: demonizing Trump and his supporters as xenophobes.
Sincerely,
VDH
Discussion (22)
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Wow, excellent rebuttal.
I suspect that even if Trump is successful the media will lie about it and spin it. The left is on a holy war.
Thank you for today's editorial in the Fresno Bee. I am a member of the "Basket of Deplorables" and a conservative. I agree with your evaluation of Obama's 8 years and I am so glad President Trump can try to reverse those policies. I am outraged by the tainted press that cannot report things truthfully. They are not even able to help this country in the first 2 weeks of President Trump's tenure to show respect to the majority that elected him or to help unify this country. I do blame the Democrats for their resist policy also. That is a further disrespect and division our country doesn't need.
We've had fake news for many years, yet only recently does it seem to have become a 'problem'. I like to think that people will learn to become more critical, but my suspicion is that (as always) people will choose to believe whatever supports the things they think they already know.
Very well done explanation. It is very similar to the 'what about all the abortion clinic bombers?' response one gets from the left when asking them why it seems such a high percentage of terrorist acts are committed by radical muslims.
While the Planned Parenthood tapes that are most commonly referenced were edited, the full and unabridged versions were available on the veritas website for anyone who wanted to make a comparison. In my mind, the Swift boaters offered more than a few legitimate queries about the details of John Kerry's Vietnam service. At a very minimum, they documented the circumstances surrounding his Purple Heart medals that got him out of Vietnam, and his fabrication of the events that justified their being awarded.
Good point about the left always resorting to profanity. The Free Speech Movement of 1964 is dead and gone, and today UC Berkeley is headed in the opposite direction, as Milo Yiannopoulos has shown us. The notion of "epater les bourgeoisie" is not only shop-worn but dead and gone. They don't shock any more when they hear foul language.
Our universities have been taken over by far left professors. They obviously no longer teach ethics and the importance of truthful reporting. What comes to mind is a story about one of our rino Senators who also ran for president. He crashed 5 jets and caused death and destruction on the s.s. forrestal. Many fighter jets and their deadly loads were pushed over the side, some missiles detonated on board the ship. all because a young Naval Aviator who graduated from the Naval academy near the bottom but was well connected with relatives who were admirals and who sent a ship to remove him and him alone and took him to Hawaii for R&R. How in the HELL did he and the navy keep that one a secret for so long? John McCain was a young hot dog who liked to frighten the plane behind him by doing a wet start where flames shoot out of the tail of the plane endangering all on board the aircraft carrier. I learned of this only after he lost to Obama. How many years ,since VIET NAM WAS THIS ON THE ALL QUIET FRONT?
I believe that Trump is devious enough to throw out this immigration proposal to distract the national media and the Democrats while he is pushing the paperwork through for the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone XL pipeline. And there could be something else that I haven't been paying attention to, but which will be in place long after he is out of office.
First, I'm not a hater. I think you're a great thinker. However, if Mr. Barrett had written, "But, it appears you have adopted a 'well our falsehoods are less egregious' approach in the article so we won’t talk about it.", you probably would not have asserted that his sentence offered no enhancement to his argument. His use of profanity, however, to which you claim the Left always resorts, apparently bothers you. Why? Just as you use latin to more precisely express your thoughts, many people, regardless of their politics, use profanity to better express theirs. I'll bet none of your readers had to Google the phrase "well our shit doesn't stink" to figure out the point Mr. Barret was trying to make. I wouldn't take that bet for your use of the phrase "quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" In fact, one could just as easily turn your own argument against you, i.e., Why does Hanson always resort to Latin? "Your talk of guards ("cus**s") offers no enhancement to your argument." Profanity can often add an emotional flavor to a phrase. Please don't stifle your angry readers' expressiveness by complaining about their use of profanity. In the words of the great Sergeant Hulka, "Lighten up, Francis."
What has been surprising to me is that Trump's infamous episode on Access Hollywood where he said he grabbed women by private parts was never put in context. Trump was a PAID actor on an unscripted reality TV series where he was supposed to say outrageous things for ratings. The more gross and outrageous, supposedly the more reality!! Did we hold former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger morally accountable for lines spoken in any of his movies and magazines about women? No, because those words weren't taken seriously. Why should anyone have taken Trump's words on Access Hollywood seriously when he is shown at the end of the film clip talking and behaving in an utterly gentlemanly way to the same lady he was talking about. Yet even conservative radio and TV hosts, such as Dennis Prager, Michael Medved and Charles Krauthammer took Trump's words at face value.
i'm astounded that he lumps swiftboat veterans in with fake news. over a hundred men in that unit vouched for an entire book listing dozens of specific charges and they threw the gauntlet down, they denounced and told john kerry's sins, in writing, on camera, with their names and their testimony boldly emblazoned right there for the entire world to see; if john kerry with his infinite resources, wanted to sue for libel, the swift boaters double dog dared him to clear his name against their charges in a court of law. it would have been a sheer delight to see four admirals, four captains, four navy commanders, plus dozens of other officers and men, highly decorated men all, to march into court and call john kerry out for the disgrace he was and is. yes, they had a political purpose for sure, to do their damnedest to make sure an incompetent, a liar, and a traitor like john kerry never holds the safety and freedom of this country in his treasonous hands. and unlike anita hill who trumped up against clarence thomas for political expedience, after years of absolute silence, john o'neill, leading the swift boaters, came blasting after john kerry the second he got back from vietnam and got wind of kerry's slanderous lies and his sworn testimony continued to dog kerry till o'neill and his comrades finally thwarted kerry's final infamous ambitions. it's frightening that some idiot can reduce anything to fake news, no matter how true it is. the left is so used to using lies to promote their godless agenda by any means, they cannot conceive of anyone else could have a different, higher standard than theirs.
Thank you Mr Hanson. We too often let the Left control the language...it is always a mistake.
Regarding the claim that the Planned Parenthood videos were edited, PP hired their own expert to evaluate how the tapes had been manipulated. (The full uncut tapes were posted on the Center for Medical Progress' website.) Their own expert said firstly, that the uncut versions had not been manipulated in any way, and secondly, that CMP's claim to have removed only non-germane video was true and that the sections that were edited for presentation had NOT been distorted or reworked to give an erroneous impression of what was happening. What the CMP presented about some Planned Parenthood clinics were the conversations as they happened and the words spoken by the PP executives wee as they had said them with no creative editing to put words in their mouths that they had not said. It was noticeable to those of following this that after PP got the report from their consultant, that they did their best to bury the information from the public. As for the Swift Boat veterans, rather than documents of questionable authenticity and no contemporary witnesses to validate the information (the "writer" of the National Guard letter had deceased some time before and therefore there was no corroboration that the letter was genuine), the Veterans could prove that they had indeed been in Viet Nam and assigned to Kerry's detail. These were eye witness accounts. Whether the tales they told were or were not true, there was credible corroborating evidence that they did have knowledge about what happened. One could impugn their stories as being distortions or lies, but their information was from people present at the events recounted not obviously forged documents of dubious provenance.
Doctor Hanson, I am curious about your thoughts on California's misguided fantasy of seceding from the Union. As a third-generation Central Californian who relocated to the eastern U.S. in 1999 because of my job, I have watched my beloved home state slowly morph into a bastion of Progressive liberalism and socialism that continues to astound me almost daily. It occurred to me that if a border was drawn, starting at Oregon to the north and ending at Mexico to the south and paralleling the coastline ninety miles inland, you would effectively encompass well over 90% of the liberals who have entrenched themselves in the Golden State. The readjustment, of course, would not address the liberal satellite lying just over the newly defined border we all know as Sacramento. A solution might be to designate a city emblematic to be the new capital of "West California". My vote would be Berkeley, as it seems to best exemplify and symbolize the ideals and the liberal, anything-goes lifestyle of those who would populate the newly formed and independent ‘country’. In one fell swoop "East California" would rid themselves of the likes of Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, Willie Brown, Gavin Newsom, Jerry Brown; et al. A bonus would be ridding itself of Hollywood and all its pompous wags, spoiled prima donnas, and self-proclaimed artistes. Meanwhile, the Easties could keep Sacramento as their capital. Vacancies in the Capitol could be filled with responsible legislators voted on and appointed by the inbred, gun-loving, Bible-toting, conservative majority. With competent leadership, East California -- possessing the Sierra Nevada’s in addition to the agricultural cornucopia of the San Joaquin Valley -- could maintain a robust and flourishing economy. The Westies might have all the asparagus, avocados, and artichokes, but the Easties would have the majority of the grapevines (think wine). Can you imagine the weeping and wailing coming from the Westies when they realize how much prime real estate dedicated to harvesting Cannabis would be forfeited and lost to the Easties!!! The Easties could also make a killing by selling water -- possibly by the gallon -- to the West. For those of us living on the ‘wrong side’ in the uncultured inlands who may bemoan the loss of great cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and numerous other gems along the coast, keep in mind that, though the libs find us deplorable, they love our money. Easties could apply for a visa and visit these coastal havens of socialism when they feel the need to refresh their memories of life in an ultra-left, politically correct, nothing-is-too-far-outside-the-envelope society. Not to worry, the Westies wouldn’t be caught dead traveling to the East, so no need for reciprocal travel privileges. By the way, anyone traveling from the East to the West, take a couple of “undocumented immigrants” with you and drop them off there. The Westies will likely welcome them with open arms. Somehow I don’t think this experiment would have legs. Based on the track record of the “leadership” running the show in present-day California, coupled with a complete loss of federal funding, the Westies would rapidly feed on itself and collapse. Even with the astronomical wealth of Silicon Valley, it would not stay afloat. At least the ship wouldn’t go down with all us ignorant, uncultured, deplorable, and “not quite Californian” Easties on board. Cordially, Former Fresno/Clovis resident and proud deplorable, James McNab
This "Angry" letter might be a great example (as you point out in your last paragraph) of how the various news media get things wrong. It's done sometimes unknowingly as it seems with this angry reader but often enough stories and facts are fabricated intentionally. This letter is also a good example of how readers of fake news unquestioningly embrace a narrative like “shutting down immigration.” or a "Muslim ban". The MSM and in general Leftists (Think the Russian hacking narrative) know how little critical thinking is done by the masses and are very skillful at the whole art of "Narratives" and "Fake News". Hopefully you can't fool all the people all of the time. Maybe thats one thing that Trumps election has proven.
Dr. Hanson, Good evening. Thank you very much for your lucid and compelling articles! Your commentaries are critical to the national dialogue as we return to "normalcy". Best regards, John Boyd U.S. Navy Vet
My access to news is a bit limited out here in western Wyoming. Did something else happen during the immigration restriction fuss that is being missed in all the smoke and screaming?
You make some good observations. Do you think that "...why does the Left always resort to profanity?" is one of them?
fake news = yes, but. Your cherry-picked facts + my cherry-picked facts = a narrative that is more true than two narratives that are incomplete.
can't fix stupid no matter what package it comes in , keep up the good work victor and hold their feet to the fire .
Maybe now we can finally get the truth regarding Ted Cruz's father's involvement in the assassination of JFK. I suggest that Trump assign his close friends, John Miller and John Baron to this task.