WaPo Loses 10% of Subscribers in 4 Days, "Floating Garbage" vs. "Garbage People"--Which Did More Campaign Damage? El Salvador Being Saved...Or Sliding Into Dictatorship? (The Five for 10/30/24)
Plus, the NYT slides into massive bias by outsourcing research. Jew shot by alleged Muslim terrorist--Chicago Police "can't find a motive."
Hey, welcome to The Five.
Since this issue deals heavily with bias in the press…and whether or not news outlets provide endorse Presidential candidates…here is the official statement from The Five.
You’re an adult. Vote. Or, don’t. If you have to be begged to go to the polls, you’re probably not fit to participate in democracy anyway.
This publication exists to shine a light on the stories the mainstream press often overlooks, and to provide a look at pop culture and commentary that unites us in a time of division…not to tell you what to do, or how to make critical decisions.
So…whatever you’re going to do (or not do) go do it (or go abstain from doing it).
Now, let’s get into the news.
[one]
A complicated, and concerning situation is developing in El Salvador, where the nation’s President sealed a neighborhood off and sent the military in.
More than 2,000 soldiers and 500 police officers surrounded a populous neighborhood on the outskirts of El Salvador's capital on Monday in an effort to quash the remnants of gangs the president said were trying to set up shop in the area.
"There is a group of gang members in hiding. We have established a security fence throughout the neighborhood... to extract every last gang member in the area,” wrote Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele in a post on X.
Police surrounded the San Marcos neighborhood with a military fence, setting up checkpoints to prevent gang members from escaping, said Defense Minister René Francis Merino Monroy.
The fence was the third of its kind to be installed in parts of San Salvador intended to find and arrest gang members still operating in the country. In March, Bukele ordered similar barricades to be put up in a northern part of the country, which he said was to dismantle a faction of the Barrio 18 gang.
The crackdown has fueled sharp criticism from human rights groups, raising alarm about prison conditions and saying many of those arrested were innocent or only had loose ties to gangs. Other measures he's taken, like seeking re-election despite a constitutional ban of presidents serving two consecutive terms, have raised other democratic alarms.
But the war on gangs also dealt a strong blow to the Barrio 18 and MS-13 gangs that have long sowed terror in much of the country, extorting money, murdering those who didn't pay and trafficking drugs.
Observations:
A). This is why the American Bill of Rights matters—we are protected from the police and military overrunning our neighborhoods, thank God. (For the most part—
B). That being said—I’m quite torn between a concern that President Bukule is becoming a dictator, and the fact that El Salvador was the most violent, lawless nation in Central and South America prior to these measures, is becoming safer. But, as Benjamin Franklin famously stated:
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety,”
Under a dictator, the people of El Salvador could wind up in a WORSE place than gang rule.
Or, maybe that doesn’t happen. It’s tough to predict the future.
C). What’s undeniable is that El Salvador is on an upswing, with a 20% increase in tourism due to increased safety, and increased financial health as a nation due to a national policy of adopting Bitcoin.
In fact, Bitcoin’s increase could wipe out the nation’s debt to the IMF.
[two]
At this point, I could be convinced that President Biden is trying to sabotage his VP. Harris has not utilized Biden on the campaign trail, and he seems pretty upset about it, contradicting her statement on Ron DeSantis’ hurricane response.
Last night, Biden caused a big stir last night with this statement, that happened at the same time as Harris’ “closing remarks” to the voters at a DC rally:
Or Puerto Rico, where I'm in my home state of Delaware, they're good, decent, honorable people. The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonization is seen as unconscionable and it's un American.
The statement was instantly compared to Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” mis-step, which may have sent election-changing independent votes to Trump in 2016.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio interrupted a Trump rally to let the 45th POTUS (and the crowd) know about Biden’s remarks:
He's talking about the Border Patrol. He's talking about nurses. He's talking about teachers. He's talking about everyday Americans who love their country and want to dream big again and support you, Mr. President. And I hope their campaign is about to apologize for what Joe Biden just said. We are not garbage.
We are patriots who love America. And thank you for running, Mr. President.
Of course, Biden’s statement was a response to the Trump team’s rather unwise decision to put comedian Tony Hinchcliff on stage at Madison Square Garden, in which the famous roast comedian called Puerto Rico an “island of floating garbage,” amidst a very blue monologue:
Which statement did more electoral damage? We’ll find out in under a week.
[three]
I’m a former subscriber to the Washington Post, but gave it up circa 2013 when the paper’s journalistic standards transformed into the kind of garbage Biden thinks Trump supporters are (hey, look I tied the stories together!)
Turns out, there’s a LOT of “former subscribers" after the Jeff-Bezos-owned publication decided not to endorse a Presidential candidate.
The Guardian reports:
The publication has now shed 250,000 subscribers, or 10% of the 2.5 million customers it had before the decision was made public on Friday, according to the NPR reporter David Folkenflik.
A day earlier, 200,000 had left according to the same outlet.
The numbers are based on the number of cancellation emails that have been sent out, according to a source at the paper, though the subscriber dashboard is no longer viewable to employees.
The Washington Post has not commented on the reported numbers.
The famed Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward said on Tuesday he disagreed with the paper’s decision, adding that the outlet was “an institution reporting about Donald Trump and what he’s done and supported by the editorial page”.
The Post has been one of the most consistent far-left publications in the U.S. The fact that a staff member sees it as a “far right” publication shows just how skewed the newsroom has become.
My friend Craig Dunham at Second Drafts Substack put it well:
I trust Bezos about as far as I can throw him, but he gets points here for trying. I would love to subscribe to an actual newspaper again for factual reporting and more objective editorial content.
[four]
…as the Washington Post is trying to be more objective, the New York Times is heading in the other direction.
In an upcoming story on YouTube news coverage of the election, reporters contacted several right-leaning outlets for comment…and admitted the Grey Lady now relies on Media Matters for research.
The Daily Wire posted the inquiry, sent by Nico Grant at the NYT:
We rely on an analysis conducted by researchers at Media Matters for America. Could you kindly provide us with a comment or decline to comment by the end of day tomorrow, Tuesday, October 29? Thank you so much for your time.
Here are points we plan to include. Media Matters identified 286 YouTube videos between May and August that contained election misinformation, including narratives that have been debunked or not supported with credible evidence. Researchers identified videos posted by you in those four months that contain election misinformation. We feature a clip of you saying, “ … Your party rigged many of the voting rules in advance of the election in order to ensure an extraordinary number of mail-in ballots, ballot harvesting …
According to allsides.com, Media Matters is about as far politically left as it’s possible for a media company can be:
Well, so much for objective reporting…
[five]
A Muslim immigrant shot a Jew on his way to Synagogue on Saturday while screaming “Allahu Akbar” (captured on a neighborhood Ring cam) and Chicago Police can’t seem to find a motive.
A man is facing 14 felony charges after officials say he shot a man walking to a synagogue and then fired at responding officers during a shootout in Chicago this weekend.
On Saturday morning, police say the man fired several shots at a 39-year-old man in the 24th district before firing “at responding officers and paramedics multiple times from various locations.” Officers returned fire, striking the gunman, Chicago police said in a release Monday. No members of the police or fire departments were injured.
Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, 22, faces six counts of attempted first-degree murder, seven counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm and one count of aggravated battery with the discharge of a firearm, the release said. It’s unclear if Abdallahi has an attorney at this time. His next court appearance is scheduled for November 7.
But there’s just no way to know why a Muslim immigrant screaming the chant of Intifada would try to kill a Jew, according to Chicago PD.
Here’s a transcript from the press conference on the incident:
Chicago PD: Sure, without getting into anything too much, uh, the statement that was made while he was engaging our officers is nothing that we could bring in as evidence at this point that would support any motive against his actions towards our officers as well as towards our victim. Was it believed to be English, another language?
Reporter: What, what did he say?
Chicago PD: We're not going to be able to put out that information right now because I want to make sure I'm not misstating anything. And so we can coordinate through the Office of News Affairs because I am certainly not going to misspeak and have there be any misunderstanding about the statement. So as appropriate, we will get that information out through News Affairs.
Keep in mind, this is the same day the corporate press was calling Trump Hitler because he…had a rally where the New York Knicks play. The event featured dozens upon dozen of Israeli flags, as well as a large number of Jews in attendance.
Meanwhile, a Jew was gunned down in Chicago in an apparent hate crime…and the city of Chicago can’t figure out the motive for a guy screaming “Allahu Akbar” when he did it.
Until the next one,
-sth