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Tapper Relents On Medicare For All Fact-Check

By Jake Johnson/Common Dreams

After days of constant pressure, clear explanations of basic facts, and a bit of healthy shaming, CNN’s Jake Tapper finally relented to the sheer force of the evidence and admitted that his Medicare for All “fact check” – which aimed to discredit Sen. Bernie Sanders’ claim that a Koch brothers-funded study showed single-payer would save Americans $2 trillion – was horribly misleading and is in need of a substantial “redo.”
The central falsehood of Tapper’s video segment, which he has now promised to correct, was his conflation of the American people and the U.S. government.

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Posted on August 27, 2018

Jake Tapper’s Flawed ‘Happy Fact Check Friday’ On Medicare For All

By Julia Conley/Common Dreams

CNN anchor Jake Tapper just added his name to a growing list of journalists in the corporate media who set out to debunk progressives’ calls for Medicare for All with a “Friday Fact Check” segment, promptly misrepresenting statements by Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as well as the conclusions of a Koch Brothers-funded study.
In his segment, produced in partnership with FactCheck.org, Tapper played two clips of Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez stating, respectively, that “Medicare for all would save the American people $2 trillion over a 10-year period” and that it is “actually much cheaper than the current system.”
Tapper responded as though the two progressives had asserted that the system would be cheaper for the U.S. government – a claim Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez did not make – and ignored a conclusion of cost-savings that was buried in the study.

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Posted on August 18, 2018

Tribune Media Lawsuit: Belligerent Sinclair Blew A Sure Thing

Highlights from the court filing the Los Angeles Times calls hilarious.
“[F]rom virtually the moment the Merger Agreement was signed, Sinclair repeatedly and willfully breached its contractual obligations in spectacular fashion.
“In an effort to maintain control over stations it was obligated to sell if advisable to obtain regulatory clearance, Sinclair engaged in belligerent and unnecessarily protracted negotiations with DOJ and the FCC over regulatory requirements, refused to sell stations in the ten specified markets required to obtain approval, and proposed aggressive divestment structures and related-party sales that were either rejected outright or posed a high risk of rejection and delay – all in the service of Sinclair’s self-interest and in derogation of its contractual obligations.”

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Posted on August 13, 2018

Sinclair-Tribune Deal Is Dead

By Free Press

On Thursday morning, Tribune Media withdrew from its proposed merger with Sinclair Broadcast Group, effectively terminating the $3.9 billion deal that would have created the largest local television conglomerate in U.S. history.
The move follows the FCC’s late July release of a Hearing Designation Order (HDO), in which the agency criticized Sinclair for “lacking candor” in its plan to transfer control of several television stations to shell companies set up by the broadcaster. “The record raises significant questions as to whether those proposed divestitures were in fact ‘sham’ transactions,” according to the HDO.
The failure of the merger, which would have resulted in a broadcast giant with an audience reach of more than 70 percent of the country, is a major victory for public-interest groups that have rallied nationally against the deal’s many harms, maintaining that a larger Sinclair runs counter to the FCC’s central mandate to promote diversity, localism and competition in use of the public airwaves.

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Posted on August 9, 2018

A ‘Complete Fabrication’ | FCC Chair Ajit Pai Finally Admits Claim Of Attack On Net Neutrality Comment System Was Total BS

By Julia Conley/Common Dreams

After spending a year claiming that the Federal Communications Commission’s public comment system had been hacked while the agency was gathering feedback on net neutrality protections – resulting in the loss of comments in favor of the rule – commission chair Ajit Pai was forced to admit on Tuesday that no such breach had taken place, just before a report on the matter was released by the FCC’s inspector general.


The agency has maintained since last summer that its comment system was targeted by multiple “distributed denial-of-service attacks” (DDoS) on May 7, 2017, just after TV host John Oliver urged his audience to comment in favor of protecting net neutrality.
Fight for the Future has accused the FCC of “invent[ing] a fake DDoS attack to cover up the fact that they lost comments from net neutrality supporters.”
In his statement on Tuesday, Pai blamed the accusations of hacking on former chief information officer David Bray, who was appointed by the Obama administration and who left the agency a year ago, suggesting that Bray lied about an attack to make it seem as though an inaccurate number of people were trying to comment in favor of net neutrality.

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Posted on August 8, 2018

A Revamped ‘Buffy’ Could Rectify The Original Slayer’s Problem With Race

By Patricia Pender/The Conversation

News of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot has made headlines, but perhaps not the kind its makers might have hoped for.
The idea of remaking the hit series – 21 years after it first aired – sparked a flurry of debate on social media . The initial report that Buffy would feature an as yet unnamed black actor in the title role met with a mixed reception.
While some were jubilant that the show, which ran for seven seasons, would return, others were seriously annoyed. As one commentator put it, talented people of color “do not need white TV show and film hand-me-downs.”
Indeed, one could criticize the reboot – racial debates aside – as an act of blood-sucking greed on the part of producers, eerily similar to the activities of the demons Buffy slayed.

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Posted on August 6, 2018

Real Doctor Reacts To Chicago Med

By Doctor Mike

“Chicago Med is surprisingly fresh. It ha[s] all the attributes of a quality medical drama. Unique medical conditions that inherently bring drama to the screen. Solid actors and actresses. Good character development, without that much romantic drama. Although I’m sure it will come in the later episodes (please correct me if I’m wrong). This show pleasantly surprised me and left me wanting to watch another episode.”

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Posted on August 2, 2018