CNN Publishes Creepy Threat, Congressman Films Ad Inside Auschwitz, FBI Car Stolen After Agent Leaves It Running at Gas Station A.M. Links

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screenshot/CNN Donald Trump is traveling to Europe today to meet with the president of Poland and attend an infrastructure summit in Germany where he is supposed to sit down with Vladimir Putin.
- Kim Jong Un said North Korea will "demonstrate its mettle to the U.S." and that its nuclear-weapons program is non-negotiable.
- CNN has discovered the real identity of "HanAssholeSolo," the person who made an anti-CNN meme that was tweeted by Trump. The network said it will not report his name so long as he remains contrite and refrains from publishing more things they don't like, which has caused a predictable uproar (and #CNNBlackmail to be trending on Twitter).
I think the criticism of reporting the story is bogus. But CNN's "we'll report his name later if we decide he's acting wrong" is off-putting
— ClenchdFistofPopehat (@Popehat) July 5, 2017
- An FBI agent had his SUV stolen from a Chicago gas station after leaving the government-issued vehicle "running and unattended long enough for a thief to get in and flee." (It was later found a few blocks away, complete with a parking ticket.)
- Louisiana Republican Rep. Clay Higgins has earned international ire for filming a U.S. propaganda video inside Auschwitz. (Sample line: "This is why Homeland Security must be squared away, why our military must be invincible.")
- Oregon's genderless driver's license policy goes into effect this week.
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Kim Jong Un said North Korea will "demonstrate its mettle to the U.S." and that its nuclear-weapons program is non-negotiable.
The Norks are dangerously close to replacing CNN as America's enemy number one.
Hello.
FUCK YOU CNN.
The network said it will not report his name so long as he remains contrite and refrains from publishing more things they don't like...
Their editorial decisions in the Trump era are spot on.
I'd like to say "Trump has killed the media", but he did not. The media's desire for self-immolation is impressive.
It's like they don't realize Trump is entirely the fault of the press. He is not the cause of peoples' distrust of them. He is the worst case scenario of what every sane person was warning them about for the 8 years they served as an arm of the Obama admin.
They know exactly what they are doing. Despite Trump's claims to the contrary, CNNs ratings have skyrocketed in the Trump era. And they are BY FAR the most followed "news" organization on twitter, which matters a hell of a lot more in 2017 than fighting over the few million old people that still watch cable news.
ClenchdFistofPopehat (@Popehat)
Seems like a violent handle to me.
I thought you would find it erotic.
For Eugene, it's both.
Are they not usually one and the same?
That seems more like a threat.
Check yo self before you wreck yo self, Popehat.
...and attend an infrastructure summit in Germany where he is supposed to sit down with Vladimir Putin.
You know who else, um, let me see... sat down with the Russkies... something to do with Germany?
FDR?
You know who else made the trains run on time?
Rahm Emmanuel?
Not Governor Moonbeam.
Joachim von Ribbentrop?
Sit down with the Russkies...something to do with Germany was my nickname in college
Something something?
An FBI agent had his car stolen from a Chicago gas station after leaving the government-issued vehicle "running and unattended long enough for a thief to get in and flee."
He didn't even leave his toddler in there to guard it?
An agent who thinks leaving a car running unattended in Chicago isn't a fucking moronic idea shouldn't be an FBI agent.
Right. He's obviously better suited to TSA.
You can't even leave a bike locked outside for a few minutes without the front wheel being stolen. I speak from experience 🙁
Chicago's not one of those places where they'll ticket you for leaving your car running and unattended when you're warming it up on a cold winter morning?
Oregon's genderless driver's license policy goes into effect this week.
Wake me when they get their driverless gender license policy up and running.
Consider yourself woke.
Louisiana Republican Rep. Clay Higgins has earned international ire for filming a U.S. propaganda video inside Auschwitz.
God, winning!
So glad CNN is fighting the good fight to protect freedom of speech. We don't need government enforced rules on what is ok as long as CNN is protecting us.
Bunch of scumbags. It's run by a little evil gnome it looks like.
critics can't handle criticism so CNN uses the lefts brown shirt tactics to silence those they disagree with
honestly this should release the floodgates for anti CNN memes, meme them to hell
Does CNN know how Reddit works and who it is populated by?
Does CNN threaten anonymous sources who give them bad information?
If no...why is THIS kid special enough to warrant that treatment?
Child robots. . . . the e-cigarettes of child pornography?
There should be a ban on the import of sex robots designed to look like children, the author of a new report into the phenomenon has said.
Prof Noel Sharkey said that society as a whole needed to consider the impact of all types of sex robots.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40428976
You really want robots taking our jobs? If child molesters want to molest a child let them molest a by-god red-blooded American child, not some damn Japanese import!
Buy domestic!
Child sex robots are (I think it goes without saying) creepy as hell.
But if I were a betting man, my money would be on them making it less likely that weirdo perverts would molest actual children.
"I think it goes without saying"
New here?
Well, I did say it, just to be sure.
They are less creepy if they resemble a child celebrity who grew up to be an attractive adult.
And when they did, they be better prepared and do less damage. Training, peeps! Be prepared!
This is a major plot point in Charles Stross's Rule 34.
Also mentioned: a cannibal club whose members use countertop cloning devices to make human steaks from their own cells, and who all get arrested but the police can't figure out what to charge them with.
If this ends in an 18-yr. waiting period for my sex robot, Prof. Sharkey is going right to the top of my 'People to kill' list!
A trade flap is roiling the solar industry ? and Trump may have the final word
Heavens to Besty.
What about that $750,000,000 we threw at Elon Musk to make solar panels in Buffalo? Oh....
How was that supposed to work? No one in Buffalo has ever seen the sun.
Experts say solar cells sell for 25 cents to 33 cents a watt, by the sea shore. See Sally for setails [sic].
Nothing will stop global warming like artificially inflating the price of renewable energy.
Fuck off, Mr. Suniva. Fuck off, you slaver, and die in a fire of your own ungodly creation.
Louisiana Republican Rep. Clay Higgins has earned international ire for filming a U.S. propaganda video inside Auschwitz. (Sample line: "This is why Homeland Security must be squared away, why our military must be invincible.")
You sure that was a US propaganda video and not an LP recruitment video? I could see a brief tour of Auschwitz being a pretty damn good argument against trusting the government with power.
It could be. But in this case, he seems to be making a rather different argument and calling for more power in the hands of the US government.
It's an odd argument as well. A bigger army might have helped Poland, but between Germany and the USSR, they were probably fucked anyway. And I doubt that Canada is planning to invade and set up death camps.
Worse. Britain and France threatened to attack Czechoslovakia if they fought back against Hitler. And the Czechs would've beaten the Nazis at that point. Easily.
Germany being stopped by Czech forces was not a forgone conclusion nor would it have been easy.
Fall Grun "Case Green" was the German operation to invade Czechoslovakia. The operation had 5 armies at its disposal and Czechoslovakia could be attacked on three sides by German forces.
It certainly would have changed Hitler's later rationale that countries would fold if attacked by Germany Additionally, it would have probably led to Czech industry being destroyed making Germany's actual use of Czech equipment and industry to supplement German military equipment and industry impossible.
Part of the problem was the new post-WW I borders, which were only slightly more logical than the mideast and African borders. Czechoslovakia had that German section (Sudetenland?) included just to punish Germany for starting WW I, but it was a lousy fit, except that Czechoslovakia had already set up their border defenses with that included, so taking it away made Czechoslovakia unable to defend the rump.
WW I was a disaster in every way.
Trump reins in tariff temptation
I'm rooting for the guys from Goldman.
Ew.
Teenager gets prison for pimping out younger girls for sex
Teach ladies not to pimp.
Fun fact: she received the same sentence as the star of the documentary The Seven Five.
Looks like Taxifornia's economy is bouncing back.
How the fuck did a 17 year old girl "force" 4 different 14 and 15 year old girls to turn tricks? Holy shit!
Good question.
"How the fuck did a 17 year old girl "force" 4 different 14 and 15 year old girls to turn tricks?"
The word "force" has many different meanings if your a J-school grad, depending on the narrative.
Yup. Under certain narratives, potential earnings of money IS force.
Like how offering incentives for clinical trial participation is "coercion."
Without knowing the details of what happened, what I find troubling is calling what she did human trafficking, which is why I assume she received such a long sentence.
"Oregon's genderless driver's license policy goes into effect this week."
In all fairness to Oregon, in most of the pics of Oregonians they do look pretty genderless.
CNN has discovered the real identity of "HanAssholeSolo," the person who made an anti-CNN meme that was tweeted by Trump. The network said it will not report his name so long as he remains contrite and refrains from publishing more things they don't like, which has caused a predictable uproar (and #CNNBlackmail to be trending on Twitter).
Maybe CNN should have investigated the source of that handle, maybe they would have found a useful nugget of wisdom in the Star Wars saga - "If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."
The capacity of the amainstream Media to take themselves entirely too fucking seriously is amazing. Hey, dim bulbs;'either report his name and take the consequences or don't. Don't grandstand. It ain't that grand.
The more you tighten your grip, the more customers will slip through your fingers.
Holy fucking shit, the Weigelian gutter rats in the JournoList are now starting to openly intimidate and blackmail citizens?
Wow. Just wow. Every time I think these lowlife scumbags can't sink even lower than they already have, they manage to surprise and go even further beneath the gutter.
They used to do things all hush-like.
Their true colors are more transparent during the dark times of Trump.
It is Trump's fault they have to act like this, after all.
The network said it will not report his name so long as he remains contrite and refrains from publishing more things they don't like
CNN's new slogan should be: We make the billionaire leader of the most powerful country in the world seem likeable.
IT'S A CONSPIRACY!
"The network said it will not report his name so long as he remains contrite and refrains from publishing more things they don't like"
Doxing someone for making a video that criticizes you is a-hole behavior.
"Doxing may be carried out for various reasons, including to aid law enforcement, business analysis, extortion, coercion, harassment, online shaming, and vigilante justice.[8][9]"
----Wikipedia
http://tinyurl.com/ny69496
Which one of those motivations should you be proud of in this case, CNN?
You'd think an organization like CNN would know about the Streisand Effect, too. This would have been ancient history by next week if CNN had just laughed it off or shut up about it. Now the most vile, hateful, most evil geniuses at 4chan are busily working to outdo each other to create the ultimate CNN meme.
It's amazing how completely divorced from reality the elitist left has become. First they bring on a crew of shit weasel reporters, have to retract a story and fire that crew for acting like shit weasels, and now this. CNN is acting so delusional--it's like they're an Alzheimer patient. They need somebody to watch them 24/7 so they don't strip naked, wander out into traffic, and get hit by a car.
I hope Reddit and 4chan publishes the home addresses and phone numbers of Jeff Zucker and every other shitweasel executive at that stinkhole.
Supposedly one of the chans has already done that--they basically saw this as an act of war and are responding in their usual manner.
CNN taking this tack was so incredibly stupid. Trump's shit-talking is irrelevant to the fact that this is supposed to be a serious news organization, not some Gawker-type gossip rag looking to ruin random people out of sheer spite. It's not exactly a coincidence that the guy at CNN who did this, Andrew Kaczynski, is a refugee from Buzzfeed. The last thing the network should be worried about is some dipshit on Reddit making goofy gifs that even Reason used after the first Republican debate. If they think that threatening this guy's livelihood is going to make them more sympathetic, Trump has truly broken them.
Let's not forget that we have an example in the not-too-distant past of a powerful figure trying to ruin people's lives on this very board for making one-off comments in response to government authoritarianism. What CNN just pulled isn't any different from that.
Let's keep in mind who Andrew is.
Remember the shitstorm over Justine Sacco making a "racist" joke? The whole "HasJustineLanded" hashtag?
That was him. HE did that.
This is a TREND with the shit. Use his "power" to fuck with folks at a lower level than he.
Regardless of a particular Internet Person's real-life ideology, there are two infractions that will cause all Internet People to retaliate immediately and enthusiastically:
1. hurting a cat
2. threatening the free expression of Internet People
Disagree with you and CNN. They should have just published his info. Journalism baby. Don't like being found out as the "anonymous" source (or in this case, meme poster)? Then don't publish in the first place. As to Streisand, that applies to one offs. This is not going to end until Trump is gone, however that ends up happening. Not saying CNN needed to make a big docudrama on it, just one or two simple paragraphs with the details.
This could be anybody. All you critics out there, be sure your sins will find you out. Everything we've done online is just waiting to be publicized, and if you criticize CNN, don't be surprised if they come after you, too. We've all done something ashamed of, and they will find it--as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow. So say what you want--but you better hope your microphone doesn't get turned up too loud.
CNN could have made this guy confess to anything.
Remember that scene in 1984, where Winston is forced to make a public confession?
"I accuse myself of the following crimes:
I have seduced party members of both sexes.
I've been to the proletarian areas.
I deliberately contracted syphilis in order to spread the disease to my wife and other party members.
Together with other agents, I have counterfeited banknotes, wrecked industrial machinery, polluted the water supply, guided Eurasian rocket bombs to targets on Airstrip One by means of coded radio signals.
I stand here, a victim of the influence of Emmanuel Goldstein.
Guilty on all counts.
I'm glad I was caught.
I was mentally deranged."
http://tinyurl.com/ln8skmc
P.S. Fuck CNN.
"They should have just published his info. Journalism baby."
Actually, no, journalism isn't about intimidating your critics into silence.
Also, how much of bunch of retarded babies to you have to be to get that totally bent out of a shape over a silly, harmless, slightly doctored video of what was essentially a human circus performance that your average fourth-grader could probably have put together?
It's even more ridiculous when you consider that that "meme" video was created and put out there several months ago. Apparently they only flipped their lids because one of Trump's guys discovered it and retweeted it.
Trump is often a thin-skinned little baby, but he's an elephant compared to those CNN schmucks.
Goddammit, i hate it when i agree with Simple Mikey.
How much of bunch of retarded babies to you have to be to agree with Simple Mikey?
That's like seven retarded babies. In my defense, i didn't get much sleep last night.
Streisand Syndrome!
If they'd just ignored it, it would have been ancient history by next week.
If they hadn't fired that crew of reporters the other week for making a bunch of unsubstantiated claims against a Trump associate, I'd think they think anything is okay--so long as it's anti-Trump.
I suspect they were protecting themselves from a lawsuit by retracting that story and firing the reporters. They were afraid the subject of that story might do to them what Hulk Hogan did the Gawker.
The principle remains intact--do anything you want that's anti-Trump so long as we don't get sued for it.
Disagree with you and CNN. They should have just published his info. Journalism baby. Don't like being found out as the "anonymous" source (or in this case, meme poster)? Then don't publish in the first place
A proglydyte defending Gawker-ite behavior by the media? Quelle surprise.
I'm sure I'm late to the party with this theory, but Stranger Things is libertarian af. Our nerdy heroes are into Dungeons and Dragons and science and they ride their bikes everywhere will little to no adult supervision, and the government is the villain. Plus, our other loner heroes bought weapons - and even procured a firearm - to defend themselves.
Apparently you missed the SAG awards, where the lead actor was claiming it is about the Resistance.
Damnit.
Resistance against tyranny, brother!
[IMG "wynona_ryder_reaction.gif"]
Yeah, but actors are often not very smart.
Why would someone listen to an actor instead of the writer? The writer might be just as delusional, of course. But there is no reason to take an actor's word for anything, as their livelihoods depend on personal insincerity.
Kim Jong Un said North Korea will "demonstrate its mettle to the U.S." and that its nuclear-weapons program is non-negotiable.
Operation Send Dennis Rodman Over Again With A Copy of The Art of The Deal didn't work. Maybe it's time for plan C: Operation This Time Send Dennis Rodman Over With a Shipment of Trump Steaks and Trump Water.
According to the experts, I'm supposed to be soiling myself over N Korea's ICBM capability, which includes the capability of hitting Alaska. This capability, I'm told, was bolstered by N Korea sending a missile into the Sea of Japan????
I don't think most of these folks have any idea how big the Pacific Ocean is, and truly how far away the Korean peninsula is from even Alaska.
NK already has fixed site missiles capable of hitting Miami, this is just testing of mobile-launch missiles. Whether they have successfully miniaturized an atomic weapon to mount on either of these missiles is unknown.
Even under the NAP, at some point North Korea sending missiles toward the USA and then threatening the USA that they will launch nukes, allows one to defend oneself.
"super-mighty preemptive strike" that would reduce American military forces in South Korea and the U.S. mainland "to ashes," according to The Rodong Sinmun, official newspaper of North Korea's Workers' Party.
-USA Today April 20, 2017
My continued hope is that China and Russia will start to get sick of Nork's bullshit. It's all fun and games for them, but I doubt they want to escalate anything into a real war with the US. Because that won't end well for anyone involved, but my guess is it ends worse for them.
I'd be OK with sending Dennis Rodman over again and leaving him there.
I am fucking delighted to live in a world where Dennis Rodman is a goddamn CIA asset.
I look forward to watching the docu-drama "Dennis Rodman's War" in 20 years.
Man tries to kill wasps but sets off fireworks and destroys garage instead
LOL.
Yeah, but i bet those wasps are fucking gone.
Sometimes such losses are necessary in the war against wasps. Scorched earth.
Tries? Sounds like he succeeded.
A Pyre-ic Victory.
It gets worse.
Here's CNN bragging about having forced this guy to make a public apology. It reads like the kind of official public apologies the Red Guards used to force their victims to make during the Cultural Revolution.
"Now the user is apologizing, writing in a lengthy post on Reddit that he does not advocate violence against the press and expressing remorse there and in an interview with CNN for other posts he made that were racist and anti-Semitic."
----CNN
"How CNN found the Reddit user behind the Trump wrestling GIF"
http://tinyurl.com/yct5tk7p
CNN is bragging about having intimidated this guy into apologizing for making a GIF!
Notice it hits all the points CNN wants to make: He may not have meant to advocate violence against CNN, but that's what he's guilty of! And he's racist and anti-Semitic, so don't feel sorry for him!
The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement this week that the tweet "undermines the work of the media in the U.S. and makes it more dangerous." CNN said in a statement that the tweet "encourages violence against reporters."
A fucking wrestling meme makes it more dangerous to be a journalist.
As a famous journalist once finished his broadcasts: "Courage!"
The Committee to Protect Journalists
How appropriately Orwellian. A lot of journalists, especially on the national level, appear to be going through this entitlement phase where they believe they can say or do anything and not be held accountable because MUH FIRST AMENDMENT--see the recent Netflix doc on the Hulk Hogan case as a prime example.
Do we even know that nature of that stuff, or is it just CNN's say-so? Not that it matters.
It doesn't matter to me. It's the principle.
They shouldn't intimidate their critics into silence--not even the ones that aren't big-eyed bunnies with cute, floppy ears.
I'll stand up for the Eighth Amendment rights of terrorists, the Fifth Amendment rights of accused rapists, and the First Amendment rights of worse than this guy.
I totally agree. Was just curious.
IIRC (it's been a long weekend), he posted a number of "black crime" memes and jokes, and a list of CNN's producers with stars of David next to the members of the tribe.
Basically, run-of-the-mill reddit/imgur/4chan shitposting.
There's something to be said about political correctness making racist, antisemitism, etc. transgressive and, hence, forbidden fruit.
If it weren't transgressive against the sensibilities of progressive prudes, that shit would just be stupid to those guys.
I even suspect some people indulge in posting shit like that specifically because they know they don't think like that--so it makes it seem funny to them to troll the prudish, progressive culture.
Regardless, I don't care what the guy posted online. If he posted violent threats, if he were violating someone's rights, or even if he were a vicious troll or something, that would be one thing.
CNN silenced a critic by threatening to dox him. Whatever this guy wrote, no matter how obnoxious, so long as he wasn't making violent threats, then we're talking about CNN's behavior--not the behavior of this critic.
And CNN's behavior is indefensible. The suggestion that the video was a threat of violence towards journalists is so absurd, I don't even think the people who say that at CNN really believe it.
Christ, what assholes.
I am HanAssholeSolo.
mentioned elsewhere =
- if there were any valid public-interest served by reporting on his identity, there is no reason for them to not do so.
- if there isn't, there is no reason for them to threaten doing so in the future.
i don't even think knowing that someone named "HanAssholeSolo" *exists* has really added any important detail to the already 'so what' nature of the "Trump tweets stuff CNN doesn't like"-narrative.
Knowing their real name would be a third degree of irrelevancy to the actual story - which is to do with the president of the united states and his Tweet habits, not the denizens of Reddit meme-mills.
basically, CNN was already a shitty propaganda tabloid, but they seem to have taken an especially petty, thuggish turn.
I think revealing his actual identity will put him in real danger. We have reached that point.
He'll be outed now.
He won't be in any danger - Han shoots first.
I wonder what the average reaction to this is?
Well, if you want to know what everyone is thinking about this, the only way to find out is to watch CNN.
They'll tell you what everyone is thinking for sure.
They're against violence.
Don't you know this is all about Trump advocating violence against journalists?
The network said it will not report his name so long as he remains contrite and refrains from publishing more things they don't like, which has caused a predictable uproar (and #CNNBlackmail to be trending on Twitter)
"Apologize and we won't ruin your life."
I wonder what his racist and anti-Semitic comments were, and whether they were outside the bounds of normal shit-talking racism on the internet.
The Guardian wrote something.
I don't think any of it justifies the publication of his identity - CNN should be embarrassed for even threatening it - I just mean that his internet posting makes him relevant, therefore his identify could be relevant.
(Sample line: "This is why Homeland Security must be squared away, why our military must be invincible.")
Yo, dawg, it was basically another country's version of Homeland Security that fucking built Auschwitz.
Yeah, but if Poland had only had better airport security, the Nazis and the USSR never could have invaded.
I don't know about that. It came out recently that the Wehrmacht was working on stealth nail-clipper technology as early as 1938.
We can hope:
"220 CITIES LOSING ALL PASSENGER TRAIN SERVICE PER TRUMP PLAN TO ELIMINATE ALL FEDERAL FUNDS FOR AMTRAK'S NATIONAL NETWORK "
http://www.eastcountymagazine......nds-amtrak's
Wanna ride a train? Terrific; pay for it.
Horses#!t. Have they never heard of Greyhound? I've taken the train through those towns. Nobody except wealthy senior tourists gets on or off there.
I like trains myself but they're stupid in the middle of nowhere where no one is using them & to cry and moan about not "investing" in new shit when the existing shit is falling apart is a bit delusional.
Even with the subsidies, Amtrak is fucking expensive. Costs almost or as much as flying.
It would be cheaper if the (potentially) profitable routes weren't subsidizing the certain loser routes.
If i'm remembering correctly, the only Amtrak line that actually makes money is the one between Boston and New York City.
They could print their own money if they got rid of the pubsec unions running it as well as the long-distance lines.
The only part of the country where they really make sense is the DC-Boston Megacity One complex--lots of population density and an existing rail network that's easily used.
Everywhere else, it's just an indulgence for train nostalgists. Going from Denver to Chicago, for example, will go just as fast if not faster if you drive, and plane tickets are about the same price or cheaper as a train ticket.
And the airplane won't break down in Snakesnavel, Nebraska letting you ride the bus to Chicago anyhow.
is there a word for doubling-down on anti-contrite? fuck you, cnn.
What would be wrong about CNN publishing HanAssholeSolo's real identity?
To be fair, the antifa crowd need a name before they can start their two-minutes hate against him.
Does the term "chilling effect" mean anything to you?
Weren't you around when Preet Bahara tried to intimidate all of us by singling out some of us?
Yeah, a news organization that intimidates its critics into silence by threatening to expose their identities and the embarrassing things they've written online--what's wrong with that?
When you're being willfully obtuse, do you have to think about it beforehand or does it just come naturally?
Weren't you around when Preet Bahara tried to intimidate all of us by singling out some of us?
CNN isn't the government.
i think its not at all a stretch to claim that CNN is in fact acting as an agent of a opposing political party rather than as independent journalists serving any identifiable public interest
i think its not at all a stretch to claim that CNN is in fact acting as an agent of a opposing political party rather than as independent journalists serving any identifiable public interest
I think it is more like CNN consistently acts like subject of a story - a newsmaker - instead of as a journalistic outfit.
Not sure what difference, if any, that makes to my point.
if they're serving their own (or the DNC's) interests, then they're not doing journalism.
And they should be treated with the same public contempt as PR flaks for Chuck Shumer/Nancy Pelosi, and they should be stripped of any legal protections that journalists use.
An opposing political party is also not the government.
i was not claiming they were.
CNN isn't subject to the same rules of ethics as the government?
You didn't ask why it was illegal.
You asked why it was wrong.
And if you think everything CNN does is morally okay so long as it isn't illegal, then you don't call yourself a libertarian, do you?
Jesus, libertarians understand that the government isn't needed to police shit like this because consumers are perfectly capable of punishing misbehavior themselves. Do you think of yourself as a libertarian?
In Libertopia, when news organizations like CNN act like shitheads and intimidate their critics into silence? The people of Libertopia will criticize them for it--just like we're doing in this thread.
How long have you been here? And do you still not know there's a difference between wrong and illegal?
And if you think everything CNN does is morally okay so long as it isn't illegal, then you don't call yourself a libertarian, do you?
If your answer, Ken, is CNN's has a moral obligation not to publish his name, I completely disagree.
Their journalistic reputation will take an even bigger hit if they do publish his name, or most likely when his name is inevitably published, and they shouldn't have made the GIF creator a public subject, but they have, which is why I asked the question.
Yeah, it's wrong for a news organization to intimidate a critic into silence by threatening to dox him.
I know.
"I know."
Then why did you ask, "What would be wrong about CNN publishing HanAssholeSolo's real identity?"
You're not moving the goalposts. It's more like you're dismantling the goal posts.
Was that supposed to be a rhetorical question?
Was that supposed to be a rhetorical question?
We will see if there are any ramifications ratings-wise or advertiser-wise for CNN, but I sadly doubt there will be.
The link provided below clarifies that it is not a "moral" obligation, but a matter of professional ethics.
The law grants protections to journalists under the pretense that they provide some public service. if they're not actually doing that, and instead using citizens as pawns in some partisan political activity, then they're not journalists anymore. They're attack-dogs for the DNC.
OK, but what would have been wrong with CNN publishing his name from the start?
Nothing = but they would have had to defend doing so on some public-interest grounds.
They chose the worst option, as i mentioned above
Either his identity is an important piece of a story in the public-interest, or it isn't.
if it IS, then they should publish and defend it.
if it ISNT, then there's no reason to threaten doing so in the future.
They chose to have their cake and eat it too = pretend they "reserve the right" to do something which they in fact have no ethical basis to do in the first place.
I agree; this was the worst option. They should've gone all the way or been satisfied with the alias. Crusty didn't ask about the threat, which is what Ken's latest treatise is about.
I agree; this was the worst option. They should've gone all the way or been satisfied with the alias.
Yes.
If CNN had just come out and said the person who published the meme is "x" and left it at that it would have been fine but instead they took the action of making a threat which also claims that he did other "awful" things as well. that is the jeopardy they put him under. the threat is the Idea that he could be harmed by others but CNN is "protecting" him by not releasing his name, for now that is. the dog whistle Threat of violence is obvious
Applying the public interest test to journalism
Read that.
shorter: which of the below interests would outing the identity of the person serve?
"what interests the public" is not always "in the public-interest".
The question you're asking is the same question many people asked about Gawker = "why CANT they randomly expose corporate executives (of competing publications) who use Rentboys on occasion?"
I don't agree with the Gawker example - HanAssholeSolo became newsworthy after the President's tweet.
To be clear, I do not think they should publish his identity, because they already look terrible as large corporation intimidating the little guy, and being petty and villainous does not help their reputation, I just do not think anyone has an innate right to remain anonymous on the internet.
It also doesn't chill free speech if his identity is published.
You don't actually address the core point i raised regarding public-interest.
on which of the above-listed bases do you consider the real-life identity of this guy "newsworthy"?
what does it actually add to a story that is essentially about Trump?
I also said nothing about chilling speech, so not sure why you're telling me that.
I do think CNN's behavior *does* do that, but its a secondary issue.
The "chilling free speech" was more in response to what Ken said.
what does it actually add to a story that is essentially about Trump?
It could be argued that Trump made the story about CNN, and then CNN made the story even more about CNN. If CNN is the subject of the story, then the person who made the GIF is a part of the story.
You're still not answering the specific question.
if you have no interest in actually addressing the point i raised here, stop pretending and say you simply don't believe that any public-interest issues apply.
Saying they are "part of the story" is a meaningless hand-wave that ignores the question of what value they specifically add to it, and why the public deserves to know, regardless of the costs it might have.
You might as well demand that the identities of the millions of people who Liked/Shared the video on Twitter or Reddit are equally "part of the story" since they had a hand in popularizing it enough to draw the attention of White House PR flaks.
If you want me to agree that CNN lacks journalistic ethics, I agree with you. If you want me to say their journalistic reputation will take an ever bigger hit after this story, I agree with you.
""if you have no interest in actually addressing the point i raised, stop pretending and say you simply don't believe that any public-interest issues apply.""
was this not clear the first time?
Zero evidence he is the one who sent it to Trump. If I post a meme, it is MY responsibility who uses it without my authorization?
So, the government wasn't wrong to try and go after Reason commenters. After all, we became newsworthy after the attempt and all...
HanAssholeSolo became newsworthy after the President's tweet.
Not really. It was a random gif that could have been made by anyone, but CNN got so assblasted about it that they decided to actually threaten the gif creator since he clearly doesn't have the resources to fight back against their threats.
And because CNN (and Andrew Kaczynski) decided that threatening a random asshole for producing something they didn't like was totally kosher, the Streisand Effect's kicked in and people are creating/re-tweeting stuff like the Karate Kid crane-kick and Happy Gilmore chokeout with Trump and CNN avatars superimposed over the heads. CNN's bosses clearly didn't think this through when they okayed it.
According to crusty, all of those people are "part of the story" now too, and must be identified.
Because..... well, because.
and must be identified.
You nailed it.
Your rational for why CNN "shouldn't" identify is simply "because its not in their self interests"
(e.g. ", because they already look terrible as large corporation intimidating the little guy,")
No one is making any arguments about what is or isn't in CNN's best interests. The question is about whether identifying the guy actually has any public-interest justification.
You act like it doesn't matter, and that even if its not in their self-interest, that there is still nothing stopping them because its "part of the story". whatever that means.
The question is about whether identifying the guy actually has any public-interest justification.
Supposedly - and I don't trust whatever stories come out of 4chan and Reddit, but assuming it's true - the GIF creator has created other memes which focus on CNN's employees - scummy, anti-Semitic memes.
Now, assuming that's true, the President Tweeted out a GIF created by someone who has an anti-CNN, anti-Semitic internet history.
How did the President come about this GIF? Who showed it to him? How did that person find it? Why are White House employees - or Trump - scouring the internet for stupid GIFs?
You are doing a wonderful job of proving my point that the only justifiable subject of the story are actually "Public figures" and what they are doing with the power the public grants them
the identity of the GIF creator (beyond their visible internet-handle) is completely incidental to any of these questions, and basically irrelevant.
if you were trying to show how the GIF-creator's "name, age, location, employment", etc. is an important part of pursuing that story about public-figures and their use of power.... i missed it.
the identity of the GIF creator (beyond their visible internet-handle) is completely incidental to any of these questions, and basically irrelevant.
I don't think they should publish his identity, but Trump made internet history is relevant, which makes his identity relevant.
Why? What if he is a Nazi, KKK, David Duke supporter, etc. Would that be relevant? I think so. If someone in the Obama administration had been Tweeting out memes created by a Fox News-hating, anti-Semitic, pro-socialistic meme creator? Of course.
Or, is he just a normal guy who has created anti-Semitic, racist memes - meaning he has secret racist tendencies - playing into every stereotype of the retard left's worst fears? That is far less relevant - and CNN should not publish his name - but they could have played up the, "this is your average Trump supporter" shit they love.
The GIF creator is relevant. His identity isn't necessarily relevant.
I should have specified "irrelevant to the public interest angle". That thing you keep avoiding.
You quote me saying, "his identity is irrelevant", and you conclude with "his identity isn't...relevant"
Not sure anything in between matters.
Oh look, Rex makes a point re: self-interest
Why? What if he is a Nazi, KKK, David Duke supporter, etc. Would that be relevant? I think so.
I'll go ahead and ask how?
Unless you're arguing that Trump or his people specifically solicited him to do it --- which STILL makes the creator's ID utterly irrelevant.
They did threaten to release his ID. And the douchebag who threatened it has specifically done it and fucked up a woman's life a years ago.
""""a GIF created by someone who has an anti-CNN, anti-Semitic internet history."""
Why is it anti-Semitic to list Jews who run CNN? Shouldn't Jews be proud of their success?
Also CNN has had many stories about White Men running things including how many White Men are in Trumps Cabinet, what wrong with writing about how many Jews are running CNN?
Why are White House employees - or Trump - scouring the internet for stupid GIFs?
Isn't that the entire point of smartphones???
That should be a story, even if it's "Steven Bannon found it on GIPHY."
I don't think the GIF creator should be the big part of the story, but he is part of it.
The question you yourself raised was
this question was answered pretty clearly = "It would be wrong because it serves no public-interest, and would be a violation of journalistic professional-ethics"
pretty much every objection/deflection you've made has been entirely besides that point. whether or not they continue to reference "HanAssholeSolo" has nothing to do with the question of publishing that guy's identity, which would be wrong regardless of whether said GIF creator behaves in a manner they approve of or not.
"It would be wrong because it serves no public-interest, and would be a violation of journalistic professional-ethics"
"It would be wrong because it serves no public-interest, and would be a violation of journalistic professional-ethics"
Again, the public interest is debatable, and we obviously disagree, so I think we should keep on posting about it.
would be a violation of journalistic professional-ethics
They obviously do not think so.
CNN's bosses clearly didn't think this through when they okayed it.
I agree.
CNN bosses have not thought things through for years.
I'd feel sorry for the person CNN incorrectly identified as the real person behind whatever it is that upset them.
I think the major thing that would be wrong is that the guy volunteered his identity to CNN and asked for his name to be kept private. I don't know the language that is used in the actual conversations, but according to the story, ""HanA**holeSolo' sounded nervous about his identity being revealed and asked to not be named." That's the language reporters sometimes use when describing anonymous sources. While this may not be the same thing as a source demanding anonymity, it feels like it's more than just good ethics to take his "ask[ing] to not be named" as part of his condition for talking to CNN. If there was not an explicit agreement, there is arguably a tacit one, and this agreement should be respected, with no caveats about voiding the agreement if HanAssholeSolo ever does something naughty in the future.
This is how internet responded to CNN. And some said #CNNBlackMail is the new Gamergate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPLuFZHckjk
Weird...CNN didn't realize that Hillary was being given questions at their debate they ran...but damn they outed this dude easily.
Guess we know what they feel is important.
I've decided the kid who made the CNN meme should come out in public and retract his apology and even sue CNN for veiled threats against his journalist right to use a false names just like all of the anonymous sources that CNN uses when talking about trump
I agree with this.
yes.
It's perfectly alright to seek whatever damages he's suffered because of CNN's behavior--although I'm not sure he should win.
Hypocrisy is a good reason to stop consuming what CNN is producing, and it's an excellent reason to pressure CNN's advertisers or asking them why they want to associate their brands with such an unethical company.
But I'm not sure hypocrisy is a legitimate basis for a tort. That might be like suing your boyfriend for cheating.
the hypocrisy is just a side bar, I'm thinking the suit would be based more on the veiled threat that harm might come if they stop "protecting" his name from the public. Protecting, blackmail, extortion all the same in this case.
That's easy to say when you wouldn't be the target of a lefty mob. And possibly a crazed gunman.
Buzzfeed is saying CNN outed the wrong person. The .gif was different than HanAssholeSolo's.
It was actually done by Spartacus?