Hello Wonks, it's time for the Sunday Show Roundup! Today we get something very familiar and also a rare newcomer to these parts. So let's do this.
We begin with former mayor of New York City, Trump attorney and "walrus who made a wish to be human" Rudolph Giuliani.
As his lower jaw proves, some wishes don't come 100% true...
Giluiani appeared on NBC's "Meet The Press" with Chuck Todd, and the infamous Trump Tower meeting and "collusion" came up:
GIULIANI: Well, because the meeting was originally for the purpose of getting information about, about Clinton. The meeting turned into a meeting --
TODD: Which in itself it's attempted collusion. I understand --
GIULIANI: No it's not.
TODD: You just said it. The meeting was intended to get dirt on Hillary Clinton from a criminal lawyer.
GIULIANI: No, it wasn't. No, no.
TODD: That was the intention of the meeting, you just said it.
GIULIANI: That was the original intention of the meeting. It turned out to be a meeting about another subject and it was not pursued at all. And, of course, any meeting with regard to getting information on your opponent is something any candidate's staff would take. If someone said, I have information about your opponent, you would take that meeting. If it happens to be a person with a Russian --
TODD : From the Russian government?
GIULIANI: She didn't represent the Russian government, she's a private citizen. I don't even know if they knew she was Russian at the time. All they had was her name.
TODD: They didn't know she was Russian, I think they knew she was Russian, but ok.
Wait ... what?!! So, it's NOT a crime if you come to a meeting to commit a crime but never actually commit the crime? What kind of "To Catch A Predator" bullshit defense is this?
Oh and suddenly, Don Jr. never knew this was a meeting with the Russian government to get dirt on Hillary beforehand, according to Giuliani. Except ...
Here is the entire timeline of Junior's emails (which he tweeted) detailing when they were approached and the scheduling of the exact meeting time with the representatives of the Russian government. This is not only a bad defense but an easily provable lie, Chuck Todd! Just muttering "I think they knew they were Russian, but ok" is not good enough.
Step up your game, Chuck, this is kind of important.
Giuliani, ever theunderoverachiever, then went on to add to this administration's "Lies Hall Of Fame" by adding a new term to the lexicon. Discussing why they are delaying Trump speaking to Mueller because of "perjury traps":
GIULIANI: ...And when you tell me that, you know, he should testify because he's going to tell the truth and he shouldn't worry, well that's so silly because it's somebody's version of the truth. Not the truth. He didn't have a, a conversation --
TODD: Truth is truth. I don't mean to go like --
GIULIANI: No, it isn't truth.Truth isn't truth. The President of the United States says, "I didn't -- "
TODD: "Truth isn't truth"? Mr. Mayor, do you realize, what, I, I, I--
GIULIANI: No, no, no--
TODD: This is going to become a bad meme.
Wow! "Truth is not truth" will be enshrined forever next to "alternative facts" and "bad people on both sides" sides in the history books. May many generations repeat your words in mockery ad infinitum .
Now we move on from political hack to Twitter's Jack. More specifically CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey.
After making a dubious stop on Sean Hannity's show , Jack's media tour to rehabilitate Twitter's image stopped by CNN's "Reliable Sources" with Brian Stelter. It was frustrating, but confirmed things that people who frequent Twitter (like me) already believed about Jack's and Twitter's views:
Dorsey argues that his company hasn't "figured this out" when it came to fake news. (No shit?)
They're reluctant to outright remove false tweets because it's "dangerous" for Twitter to serve as "arbiters of truth" (Because somehow letting wild conspiracies & misinformation is much better.)
The company doesn't have the resources to actively hunt for offending content (mm hmm, OK).
When asked why Alex Jones was temporarily suspended but not banned, Dorsey stated, "As we receive reports we take action and there are varying degrees of enforcement action, starting with warnings to temporary suspensions, which the accounts are now in," but stated that they didn't earlier because as there "weren't enough" reports. (Highly doubt that.)
Dorsey stated that Twitter as a company is "more left-leaning," but said this is precisely why they are particularly careful to avoid anything that could be construed as a bias. He denied any screening for material based on its political orientation and stressed neutrality above all else. (So the false equivalence that we get in news, basically. The "two sides" argument that is used to allow batshit lies have equal weight to the truth.)
Dorsey seems to be trying to solve the "problem" while ignoring the cure: ENFORCE YOUR RULES/TERMS! The fact that some accounts are suspended, temporarily or permanently, for harmless opinions while the darker more "conservative" elements are allowed to abuse it in a misguided attempt at "balance" is the issue.
Fix it, Jack, because I CANNOT go back to dealing with relatives on Facebook. As renowned mathematician Ian Malcolm once said in a similar situation:
THE END. See you next Monday, because we watch these damn shows so YOU DON'T HAVE TO.
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And bliss. He's a blissful motherfucker. Actually, cousin fucker.
Correction noted :)