Layers And Layers Of Gatekeepers, Part MMMLXVIII

SCENE:  Mitch BERG is leaving a downtown Saint Paul bar after happy hour with friends.  

As he fumbles for his keys by his car, MyLyssa SILBERMAN, reporter for National Public Radio’s Saint Paul bureau, steps out of an organic tax accountant office.  Dressed in a hemp power skirt, her brunette-but-slightly-prematurely-gray hair cut into the style known as “ELCA Hair”, she wrinkles her nose on encountering BERG.

SILBERMAN:  Er, hello, Merg.

BERG:  MyLyssa.  A pleasure (He finds his car key)

SILBERMAN:  You and your show and blog are “fake news”

BERG:  Huh.  You don’t say.  Why’s that?

SILBERMAN:  You don’t have a staff of fact-checkers.

BERG:  .Like the Washington Post.

SILBERMAN:  Exactly.  The Washington Post has layers and layers of gatekeepers and factcheckers, all trained at Ivy League journalism schools to the highest standard of the journalistic craft.

BERG:  The WaPo ran a story last week about Russian hackers trying to bring down the Vermont power grid.  Until it turned out it wasn’t; just some malware on a laptop that wasn’t connected to any grid other than an AC plug.  Then they revised the story, and tried to re-focus it under the radar while going “um, nothing to see here” about their earlier claim that Russians  were trying to bring down the US power supply.

SILBERMAN:  Right.  The fact-checking worked.

BERG:  The “fact-checking” was entirely external to the Washington Post.  They were “fact-checked” by their audience and the rest of the media.  No different than my blog.

SILBERMAN:  No, Merg.  That’s false.  And I’ll tell you why.

BERG:  OK.  You do that.

SILBERMAN:  The person who pushed “publish” on the online revision?

BERG:  Yes…?

SILBERMAN:  And the person who started the printing presses?

BERG:  Right?  Yes?

SILBERMAN:  They were Washington Post employees.  Without them, the correction would have never gotten out.

BERG:  Huh .

SILBERMAN:  Also, you are a white male.  (Looks at bare wrist)  Oh, look at the time.  (Steps back into accountants office).

BERG:  (Rolls eyes, climbs into car)

And SCENE.

13 thoughts on “Layers And Layers Of Gatekeepers, Part MMMLXVIII

  1. Crap. It used to be that you could sometimes trust the WaPo over the NY Times, in some cases. WaPo was more hawkish on US military involvement in the ME than the NY Times, for example.
    I think that what the MSM is missing is that Trump takes the Global War on Terror much more seriously than Obama or even GW Bush. Trump views Israel and Russia (actually Netanyahu and Putin) as powerful allies, at least potentially, in a revived GWOT.
    Trump sees Russia as possibly being a more reliable ally in the ME than the EU.
    I am not endorsing the idea that Putin can be a global ally of the US, but this is what I believe is behind the Trump rapprochement with Russia/Putin.
    What does Putin want from the US?
    Putin is potentially facing serious criminal charges against him, personally, in the west, and then there are those darn sanctions.
    Putin is really stuck with running Russia. If he steps down, he risks serious recriminations both inside and outside of Russia. He can’t step down, not safely.
    The US could take actions to ease the sanctions against Putin and his pals.

  2.  “Donald Trump’s Plans Threatened by Reality” 
    A headline we are going to be seeing rather a lot.

  3. “Donald Trump’s Plans Threatened by Reality”
    A headline we are going to be seeing rather a lot.

    And should have seen a lot more often in the past 8 years. Saw a hilarious bit in the Post (I was checking to see whether they actually own their own presses because of the legendary accuracy of people like DG) decrying Trump’s narcissism…as if the current guy has a degree of humility or something like that.

    Nice of you to notice, guys, but where ya been all this time?

  4. Pingback: In The Mailbox: 01.03.17 : The Other McCain

  5. Emery Incognito:
    “‘Donald Trump’s Plans Threatened by Reality’
    A headline we are going to be seeing rather a lot.”

    If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor

  6. “‘Donald Trump’s Plans Threatened by Reality’
    A headline we are going to be seeing rather a lot.”

    Everyone can expect an average $2500 reduction in premiums

  7. I don’t believe this will play as well as you think. From a policy perspective, Republicans are actually boxed into a corner. They’ll be held accountable if they don’t reform or repeal Obamacare, and they’ll be responsible to replace it with something that works better and voters approve of. The optics won’t play very well in the 2018 Congressional election.

  8. Trump hasn’t even been sworn in, yet.
    I’ve heard reports of an “unnamed highly placed source” within Trump’s organization, who says that they have a plan for the first 9 hours, the first 9 days, the first 90 days, and the first 900 days.
    If we get the worst of Trump, the worst of Trump’s staff, and the worst of congress, things can get very bad, indeed. If we get the best from Trump, the best from his staff, and the best from congress, the sky is the limit.
    I suspect that we will get something between the extremes.
    The more interesting game, IMHO, will be how the very Left-Wing institutions that consider themselves to be America’s unelected legislators (the MSM and academia) deal with their marginalisation. My guess is not well:
    http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-kirchick-trump-coup-20160719-snap-story.html

  9. I did enjoy when Trump told Congress (ethics tweet) to get to work on fencing off Mexico and ending the ACA. That’s probably good advice, they know more about those two issues than they know about ethics.

  10. Perhaps Trump will soften and vow to be as welcoming to Immigrants as Mexico is 🙂

  11. I think Trump complained about the timing. It’s much better to bury it in a thousand page appropriations bill where no one will notice.

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