90 Miles From Tyranny

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Pew: US media bias ranks worst in the world

The United States is unique in the sense that on both sides of the political spectrum, voters believe the media does a poor job reporting political issues in a fair way, according to huge new survey of media consumption in 38 nations.

The Pew Research Center’s study found moreover that supporters of President Trump believe the media is doing a worse job than the supporters of any of the other international political figures in countries surveyed.

It may not come as a surprise since US politics are divisive as ever.

“Large gaps in ratings of the media emerge between governing party supporters and non-supporters. On the question of whether their news media cover political issues fairly, for example, partisan differences appear in 20 of the 38 countries surveyed. In five countries, the gap is at least 20 percentage points, with the largest by far in the US at 34 percentage points,” Pew noted.

Most in the US would agree that the top five media organisastions based in the US are CNN, Fox, MSNBC, ABC News, and CBS. According to Media Bias/Fact Check, 2 of these websites, CNN and MSNBC, have a left-wing bias, ABC and CBS have a center-left bias, and Fox has a right-wing bias. Thus, the five major US sources are showing a definite right or left bias.

The survey found that only 21 percent of Americans supportive of Trump and Republicans believe the media is reporting fairly. But it also found that only 55 percent of those who that voted against Trump also believe the media is biased in their reporting on US politics.

In every other case, those numbers are reversed, Pew said.

“The US is also one of only a few countries where governing party supporters are less satisfied with their news media than are non-supporters. In most countries, people who support the political party currently in power are more satisfied with the performance of their news media than those who do not support the governing party,” the study revealed.

Some 2 in 3 American adults say fabricated news stories cause a great deal of confusion about the basic facts of current affairs, according to Pew. The survey found that Republicans and Democrats are about equally likely to say that “fake news” leaves Americans deeply confused about...

Piece by piece, this first year of the Trump presidency has been about largely one mission: undoing Barack Obama.

As promised, President Trump is unraveling the unilateral – and largely unconstitutional – orders that were set in place by the previous eight years, to the delight of his supporters.

Anyone surprised at this should take a second look. During the campaign, Trump labeled Obama a “disaster,” a “catastrophe,” and “the most ignorant president in our history.”

Obamacare

President Trump promised to “repeal and replace” Obamacare as soon as “day one.” With a recalcitrant Congress, that proved impossible, but President Trump managed to knock out one of the three legs of the Affordable Care Act.

Within the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Trump and Congress managed to do away with the so-called “individual mandate,” which required Americans to get health insurance or pay a penalty.

The president also used his executive power to end cost sharing-reduction payments, government payments under Obamacare that helped insurers offset the cost of providing healthcare to some of the poorest Americans.

Paris Climate Agreement

You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?

It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,

from the beautiful to the repugnant,

from the mysterious to the familiar.

If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,

you could be inspired, you could be appalled.

This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.

You have been warned.

South Africa's Farm Murders: Jeanine's Story

Girls With Guns

In Venezuela, they were teachers and doctors. To buy food, they became prostitutes.

This Man's Behavior Is Both Bizarre And Dangerous...

Our New Immigration Laws:

3 Out of 4 Terrorists Since 9/11 Are Foreign-Born, but Over Half Are Citizens

About three-fourths of those convicted on terrorism charges since 9/11 are foreign-born—and more than half of them aren’t U.S. citizens, according to a new report from the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

Still, the joint report issued Tuesday finds that prosecutors lodged more than half of all terrorism charges—295 out of 549—against U.S. citizens either by birth or naturalization.

A merit-based immigration system that favors immigrants who are able to fill needed jobs is more likely to attract immigrants who will be successful than does the current family-based system allowing chain migration, a senior Trump administration official told reporters in a conference call.

President Donald Trump favors the merit policy along with stronger border security and an end to the visa lottery system.

More successful immigrants would contribute to the prosperity and security of the country, the senior administration official said.

Though a merit-based system would be economically beneficial, it largely would be disconnected from security, said David Inserra, a policy analyst in homeland security at The Heritage Foundation.

“It depends on how we look at why someone becomes a terrorist. If we think it’s just poor people, then an economic system would change that, but we know that’s not the case,” Inserra, who maintains a database of terror plots against U.S. targets for The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal.

Noting the number of naturalized citizens who become radicalized on the list in the Justice and Homeland Security report, Inserra said the bigger problem is with assimilation.

“If someone comes to the United States and becomes a terrorist 20 years later, that’s not a vetting problem, that’s an...