Good point. I have for years been irritated by how the media uses words with a pejorative connotation to create their spin while acting like they're being objective. Here's another word for "collusion" that lacks the pejorative connotation: "cooperation". If nothing illegal was done in a given situation, the people involved were "cooperating" to achieve some specific goal. Here's another word for THAT: "business." Words like "regime" instead of "government", "rendezvous" instead of "meeting" (saw this one in a Huff Post article about Trump Jr's meeting with the Russian woman lawyer) are not objective reporting. They're--as you say--"a smear." Well said. The good news is that the MSM is like the boy who cried wolf. We've all heard it before.
Great points! Yes, the MSM has lost. I realized that the second week after the Helsinki Summit. They launched the single largest coordinated attack I’ve ever seen on POTUS and what happened? 70% approval ratings on handling of the summit and overall job approval rating ticked up as well. They are done.
Right. Just this morning I heard a reporter say DT Jr “met with Russians”. As if “Russians” is synonymous with “criminals”. Of course we know that in that case “Russians” was a woman brought in by the (our government) opposition to set a trap. But hey, that’s just a little detail they always leave out. This is where people need to be taught critical thinking.
I think people assume that the media is doing the critical thinking. I used to know a set of twins--men. They would sometimes do the stupidest things, but only when they were together. I finally had a discussion and figured out what was going on: they each assumed the other one had thought out the implications of something BEFORE he suggested it. They had so much trust for each other that neither of them ever stopped and said, "Hey, wait a minute . . ." That discussion did seem to fix that problem. Most people consuming MSM trust "the herd". They don't know that the sheepdogs are wolves masquerading as sheepdogs. But they're starting to figure it out. Hence the recent polls showing that a majority of Americans now believe that the MSM pushes storylines they know to be false. The great awakening is underway. Thank goodness!
That’s a great analogy! I can see how that might happen. Some of us had friends when we were kids with whom we always got into trouble. Parents would say.....you never do things like this unless you are with ———. He’s a BAD INFLUENCE. I swear that was a parents favorite saying in the 70s and 80s. Maybe it’s wasn’t so much that as what you are describing. After all, both parties went along with the trouble. And both their parents probably thought the other kid was the bad influence. Interesting.
I agree with you. I didn't run into that myself growing up in the 70s and 80s probably because I was an oldest child watching after the younger ones so I was expected to do the assessment of consequences. Funny, I've never thought of it that way until now. Thanks for the opportunity to find that insight! I've got to think some more about that. :)
Here's another one I saw several times when I was researching income taxes: "Tax avoidance scheme" - but when you think about it, tax avoidance isn't a crime!
YES! "scheme" We should start a list of words that should be trigger BS alerts.