Ed Morrissey:
How does “fake news” travel around the nation and the world? First, a source has to publish false stories, and then like-minded people already inclined to believe it have to transmit it through other sites and social media. In fact, as T. Becket Adams and Mollie Hemingway both point out today, it looks something like … this:
And this, too:
All of this comes from a passage in a New York Times article about Rick Perry, one that uses one quote from an energy lobbyist to paint the incoming Secretary of Energy as ignorant of the actual job, without any other corroborating direct evidence or testimony. Supposedly Perry just thought he’d be an ambassador for American energy production:
When President-elect Donald J. Trump offered Rick Perry the job of energy secretary five weeks ago, Mr. Perry gladly accepted, believing he was taking on a role as a global ambassador for the American oil and gas industry that he had long championed in his home state. In the days after, Mr. Perry, the former Texas governor, discovered that he would be no such thing — that in fact, if confirmed by the Senate, he would become the steward of a vast national security complex he knew almost nothing about, caring for the most fearsome weapons on the planet, the United States’ nuclear arsenal. …
“If you asked him on that first day he said yes, he would have said, ‘I want to be an advocate for energy,’” Michael McKenna. “If you asked him now, he’d say, ‘I’m serious about the challenges facing the nuclear complex.’ It’s been a learning curve.”
The only other testimony to the proposition that Perry “misunderstood” the job he accepted comes from a poli-sci professor at Southern Methodist University, who complained about Perry’s qualifications:
“Rick Perry was pitch-perfect for Texas politics,” said Calvin Jillson, a professor of political science at Southern Methodist University in Texas. “He has very close ties to the oil industry. He is about ‘the Texas way’ — low taxes, low regulation. But none of that gives him the depth of knowledge needed for running the Energy Department.”
Four terms as governor certainly gives Perry the executive experience for the job, though, which is what actually relates to “running” the DoE. As the Times points out, Bill Richardson wasn’t even that qualified when he took the job in the Clinton administration; he was previously the UN Ambassador after 14 years in Congress and became governor of New Mexico later in his career. Did the NYT and the rest of the establishment media go nuts over Richardson’s appointment on the grounds of a lack of qualification? Here’s their coverage of the trial balloon of Richardson’s appointment in 1998, which never questions his lack of scientific qualification for the job, nor gives any hint that Richardson knew of the DoE’s operations. Philip Shenon managed to get this quote from the White House:
Barry Toiv, a White House spokesman, insisted that there was still no decision on whether to name Mr. Richardson to the energy post.
”There is no decision on the energy secretary,” Mr. Toiv said. ”He would be a very strong candidate given his experience as a Congressman from New Mexico, but he’s doing a fantastic job at the U.N.”
So for the Gray Lady, a suggestion that 14 years in Congress is acceptable qualification, but 15 years as governor is not? A month later, with the appointment already made, Neil Lewis’ coverage only mentions Richardson’s connections to Monica Lewinsky as a potential hurdle to confirmation, and never points out Richardson’s lack of experience in either energy policy or executive positions.
It seems that the NYT has a rather different standard for judging Energy nominees, or more likely, a bias against Republicans. For instance, the rest of the current article reads like a big, wet kiss to Ernest Moniz, whom Perry will replace. And here’s how Davenport and Sanger compare the two:
The one realy good use for the New York Slimes Bird Cage linning
Trump’s energy pick Perry softens stance on climate change
He seems to have drifted off message there for a moment. Perhaps we can somehow deal with the problem by way of wishful thinking.
@Greg:
Man made climate change is a hoax, period.
@Greg: It has been proven that certain scientists skewed the data, and that climate change is as false as the article.
The grey ladies grown senile someone call the nut house have them bring a net
Taking advantage of liberal stupidity would make great sport if it weren’t so easy. Almost like cruelty to animals.
@July 4th American, #3 & @enchanted, #4:
You had better remind Perry. He seems to have forgotten.
@Greg: No Greg, it is you who continues to spew the mindless liberal propaganda. You really need to go to HuffPO with the rest of the kooks.
Vladimir Putin, January 17, speaking in defense of Donald Trump:
That’s got to be the funniest comment I’ve read all week.
@Greg: #7
He said some of it may be caused by man. You watermelons on the left believe man causes all climate change and is killing the planet. If it were not so pathetic to think that way it might be humorous. But, it is really a sick mentality, you leftists have.
@Greg: Did you see all those fireworks in DC last night? I wonder if Trump knew someone that had bought a bunch of fireworks but didn’t use them and was able to pick them up cheap from… her?
By the way, Trump’s inauguration has come in millions under budget… and he has returned the surplus to the Treasury.
@Bill… Deplorable Me:
Obama Leaves U.S.A $9,335,000,000,000 Deeper in Debt
Worst. President. Ever: Obama First President EVER to Not Reach 3% GDP Growth
@July 4th American, #10:
Global temperature rise resulting from human activity is a separate factor that adds to the effect of any natural warming cycles. It’s the one component that we have some control over.
Is this too difficult to grasp? If you boil a teakettle of water in your kitchen on a hot summer day, the kitchen becomes warmer than it would be as a result of the hot summer day alone. You’re pumping energy to the system that wasn’t there before.
If you release fossil carbon into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide—a greenhouse gas—by burning fossil fuels, more solar energy is reflected back to the Earth’s surface and less escapes into space. However warm it would have been owing to purely natural cycles is increased, because you’ve diminished the rate at which heat escapes from the system. You’ve changed a variable.
@Greg: Except you can’t show it is happening, that the climate variations are any more extreme than they have been historically and NONE of the predictions of the warming nazis has come to pass.
@Greg: #13
Spoken like a complete idiot.
Whoever told you that you’re smarter than the average elementary school science teacher was lying. Most likely it was some right-wing politician, with an assist from the right’s endless supply of propagandists and media shills. You’ve become part of a populace movement proudly defined by willful ignorance, which lacks any capacity for recognizing its own pretense.
Good luck with Donald. You’re going to need it.
@Greg:
It appears that shortly after noon today, all references to man made climate change are no longer on the WH.gov website….
Thank you President Trump
Yep. Other issues can also be made to disappear without a trace. Has he terminated the investigations into his own background yet? Indications are that media access to the inner workings of the Trump administration will soon be locked down. Twitter posts will become the modern equivalent of statements the leader makes from his balcony.
You really don’t get any of this, do you?
http://moonbattery.com/graphics/wh-climate-before-after.jpg
@Greg:
.
I guess we can now add alternative facts to the Trump administration lexicon.
Why do they keep doing this? They are failing to transition from campaign attack mode to a functional presidential administration. Trump has openly declared war on the media. He’s not going to win that one. He needs to hit the reset button immediately and find a different and more mature way of responding to media criticism, the receipt of which is an unavoidable part of being President.
@Greg: You can “add” whatever makes you feel like the left wing lies are replacing facts. That’s what the left has been doing for over 8 years. It’s also what helped propel Trump into office.
Keep it up, by all means. In addition to the Democrat party, you may succeed in destroying the liberal media as well.
@Greg:
Bill To Withdraw The US From The United Nations Has Been Submitted To Congress
President-Elect Trump job approval rating 56%
@Greg:
Pres Trump Will Sign Executive Order Sunday to Defund International Planned Parenthood
@July 4th American, #23:
Where did Rasmussen collect opinions? The Trump peanut gallery?
The Trump-O-Matic
It would appear that opinions vary.
@Greg:
White House confirms relocation of US Israel embassy to Jerusalem
That would be guaranteed to raise tensions, increase violence, and make the possibility of any workable solution even more remote than it is at present.
@Greg: Oh, yeah… let’s sit in the dark shivering or we’ll anger radical Islamists and they’ll attack us.
THIS JUST IN We have been at war with radical Islamic extremists for almost 16 years; no matter WHAT we do, they hate us. Just because Obama denied it for 8 years does not mean it doesn’t exist. We no longer have to avoid doing the right thing just because it might make terrorists mad.
@Greg:
Trump team blasts Madonna: ‘Can you imagine saying that about President Obama?’
Members of President Trump’s inner circle blasted Madonna on Sunday, after the singer said she had thought about blowing up the White House. “I mean, can you imagine saying that about President Obama?”
I suppose the upside of an accidentally empowered political movement glorying in its own stupidity is the fact that it will totally self-destruct all the more quickly. It’s going to be grim, but maybe we need the lesson. Hopefully we’ll survive it.
@Greg: Since the far left Democrat party has destroyed itself with its corruption, racism, lies and failure, I suppose all you can hope for is for the Republicans to shoot themselves in the foot.