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Free Judge Napolitano!
By Cliff Kincaid // AIM.org
BuzzFeed, described by Wikipedia as “a liberal American internet media company based in New York City,” is in the “donor spotlight” at the national news museum in Washington, D.C., known as the Newseum. The “honor” demonstrates how the media have changed and how low they have sunk.
A virtual property of Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal, BuzzFeed has been a cog in the anti-Trump media machine.
The “donor spotlight” designation is strangely appropriate, since BuzzFeed disclosed the so-called “Trump Dossier” used by the intelligence community to smear President Trump. “The allegations are unverified, and the report contains errors,” the social media site acknowledged while spreading the dubious claims.
By contrast, the John Peter Zenger exhibit located in the Newseum highlights a printer whose publication used the weapon of truth. The Newseum tells us, “German immigrant John Peter Zenger became a free-press hero before there was a First Amendment. On Nov. 17, 1734, the newspaper publisher was jailed for printing truthful articles in his New-York Weekly Journal accusing British Colonial governor William Cosby of being corrupt.”
The “Trump Dossier” released by BuzzFeed was concocted by a former British intelligence agent, and turned over to James Comey’s FBI. Around that time, in July of 2016, notes columnist Lawrence Sellin, the FBI launched its investigation of the unproven connections between the Trump campaign and the Russians. Comey told Congress that the Bureau has been actively investigating possible links between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin since “late July” of 2016.
“What a coincidence,” writes Sellin, a retired colonel with 29 years of service in the U.S. Army Reserve and a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq. This means that “the FBI investigation was based on highly questionable evidence” for which former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele reportedly “paid intermediaries who in turn paid sources for the information he used in the report.” In other words, he says, they were third-hand rumors from unidentified individuals. Sellin adds, “Remarkably, along with Trump’s political opponents, the Obama-Comey FBI planned to pay Steele to continue his work.”
The British link is significant. While Fox News commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano has been suspended for suggesting that the British NSA, known as GCHQ, had access to the surveillance information used against Trump, the two organizations do in fact have a history of working closely together.
This is shaping up as an example of how the Deep State operates, writes Sellin. In this case, intelligence arrangements are made “that open the possibility for government officials to skirt inconvenient national laws in order to surveil citizens and then use the products of that surveillance for political purposes.”
For raising necessary questions about this arrangement, Napolitano was reportedly banned from Fox News. He is the modern-day John Peter Zenger. However, his March 16 column, “Did Obama Spy on Trump?” is still on his website and looks increasingly relevant every day that passes.
This has been a major black mark for Fox News. Still, Fox News personalities like Sean Hannity are trying to cover the deepening scandal involving Obama administration surveillance of Trump and his associates.
The role that has been played by Comcast and its properties in the anti-Trump campaign is a teachable moment that allows us to reflect on the meaning of the First Amendment and how modern media have left behind the legacy of John Peter Zenger.
In contrast to Zenger, who used the weapon of truth against public officials, BuzzFeed used lies that were apparently devised for partisan political purposes by a foreign operative.
Referring to Comcast and others, Trump adviser Peter Navarro said during the campaign, “Donald Trump will break up the new media conglomerate oligopolies that have gained enormous control over our information, intrude into our personal lives, and in this election, are attempting to unduly influence America’s political process.”
BuzzFeed has been forced to apologize to one of those named in the Trump Dossier, in preparation for a suit filed against them.
By contrast, Zenger was found not guilty of seditious libel after his attorney, Alexander Hamilton, said, “It is not the cause of one poor printer, but the cause of liberty.”
Rather than being given a distinction as a valued donor, perhaps an exhibit in the Newseum should highlight BuzzFeed as an example of the politically-correct corporate media that today makes a mockery of First Amendment values.
At the same time, the Newseum should consider embracing the cause of freeing Judge Napolitano.
There’s no money in doing so. It would just be the right thing to do. It would be a reaffirmation of First Amendment values.
Cliff Kincaid
Cliff Kincaid is the Director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism and can be contacted at [email protected].View the complete archives from Cliff Kincaid.
http://www.aim.org/aim-column/free-judge-napolitano/
More great articles here: http://www.aim.org
jdp…Then all the MSM THAT USED THE FAKE DOSSIER TO TRASK TRUMP SHGOULD HAVE THE PUB LIC PULLED AS WELL., IT WAS WORSE THAN CGHQ.
jdp…Then all the MSM THAT USED THE FAKE DOSSIER TO TRASK TRUMP SHGOULD HAVE THEIR PUBLISHING LIC PULLED AS WELL., IT WAS WORSE THAN CGHQ.
jdp…Then all the MSM THAT USED THE FAKE DOSSIER TO TRASK TRUMP SHOULD HAVE THEIR PUBLISHING LIC PULLED AS WELL., IT WAS WORSE THAN CGHQ.
You’ll never hear the real news on MSM because they are owned by the elite jews and controlled by Rupert Murdock. Who ever controls the media controls the people. We have all been asleep and ignorant of this takeover. How will we ever get our country back from this evil satanic group! Never thought I’d rather live in Russia…
Yahweh has a plan and it’s in the prophesies.
America is a great mountain a kingdom age nation under siege.
False Jews have been taking over the nation slowly since they put in the Federal Reserve in 1913, then the Communist progressive income tax system, Social Security, control over education, control over resources thru health and safety issues …
Ahem, Communism is derived from a Russian word for living in a village where there was common ownership, I wish people would finally get it right. What it is and what it was done in its name are entirely different. In the USA the state’s’ owned the land/ property (which is common under state ownership) and ‘let’ to tenants which is no different to what Rome practiced 2800 years ago (or no different to state control ownership of a market, eventually the senators got all the tenancies and inherited the rights), Soviet Communism also had money, charged interest on accounts and the plebeians had to buy from state owned shops – that is they had capitalism within socialism, but could not legitimately sell products themselves other than to the state at state prices.
The real difference is Feudal ownership where Barons own everything under some form of Monarch and everyone else are surfs. As in Rome you always eventually get a Monarch, always eventually all the land/property becomes private.
Pot calls Kettle black.
Judge Napolitano has good sources that have never failed him in the past. It seems nefarious on FOX news part to take him off the air. Even if the Judge had broke some rule … a simple restatement clarifying the issue would be acceptable. Why he is off the air only makes the spots on FOX news back stand out and maybe we are dealing with more of a predatory Leopard upon the people then we thought. Lets hope he is back on the air soon
“The lie can be maintained only for such time as the state can shield the people from political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the state to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the state.”
Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels,
Ministry of Enlightenment, Third Reich
jdp…GET THIS OUT SEE THE LINK BOMBSHELL ON WIRETAP http://www.fourwinds10.com/siterun_data/government/judicial_and_courts/news.php?q=1489504978