“Cheap fake” is the political term of the day
Team Biden has its collective undies in a bunch over what they call fake news – or to use the new term, “cheap fake.” They are currently focusing on videos that portray President Biden as feeble and in the early stages of age-related non compos mentis.
They are calling the videos “fake” – implying that they are carefully recorded and edited to give a false impression of Biden’s vitality and mental acuity. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierrie has called the videos both “deep fake” and “cheap fake.” She is fibbing (fake news?) in both cases. The term “deep fake” has come to describe images and recordings that are created by Artificial Intelligence. That is NOT what the videos of Biden are.
Some, like Jean-Pierrie, use the term “cheap fake” to describe videos, recordings and quotes that are allegedly altered or taken out of context to give a false impression. The videos are not that either. They are not the result of sinister manipulation. In fact, many of them are the product of media pool cameras that supply copies to all the news outlets. What you see is what you get.
This is just another example of Democrats wanting you to believe their campaign propaganda narratives over what we the people can see with our own eyes.
How many times have we been told that the American border is secure – is not open? Yet thanks to an array of news services, we have seen examples of the more than eight million illegals who have crossed the border since Biden took office and reversed more than 80 of Trump’s border protection orders. Calling the border secure is fake news.
How many times have American families been told that they are living in one of the best economies in American history – even as they are being crushed by inflation, soaring interest rates, poor wage growth and housing and mortgage costs that are putting home ownership out of reach of most younger Americans. The good times political gospel is of fake news.
At this time four years ago, we were in a conspiracy between the White House, the intelligence community emeritus, the media and the boys running big tech. They peddled a fake story that they knew was not true because they made it up. You know — how the Hunter Biden laptop, and its damning contents, were all the work of Russian mischief.
Speaking of the Russians, we have an example of “deep fake” in terms of the bogus Steele Dossier. That was the so-called intelligence document that was invented and paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016. They deep faked a document to create fake news.
Unfortunately, fake stories that become fake news are ubiquitous in politics. Former Congressman George Santos created fake news stories about himself with a resume that would be filed under “fiction” in the local library. Ditto with President Biden. Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal bragged about his combat experience in Vietnam for years until it was revealed that he had none. Hillary Clinton told of her harrowing experience when she came under sniper fire arriving in Bosnia. She apparently mistook the little girl peacefully handing her flowers for a terrorist.
It is one thing to spin the facts through partisan interpretation. But quite another to use the news media to create and use phony narratives and phony “evidence” to create fake stories. What can be said is that those videos of Biden looking feeble and confused at times are not fake news. It is reality captured on camera. Those who push back at those videos, like Jean-Pierrie, are the ones engaged in the production of fake news.
Ironically, the wave of pushback generated by Team Biden may be backfiring. It has brought a lot more attention to the videos. To use the media expression, it has given the story ‘legs.” The videos are being seen by more people more often than they would have.
Singer Barbara Streisand is a good example. She took to X to criticize the videos, saying that media outlets should not “amplify” the videos that she called “disinformation.” She was flooded with responses from folks who had not seen the videos but then checked them out.
Despite the pushback spin, the videos appear to show Biden in serious senior moments – both visually and verbally. The claims that the videos are somehow faked or disinformation are not credible when you see them.
So, there ‘tis.
FOOTNOTE: Interestingly, the political cartoon atop this commentary was the work of Frederick Burr Opper and published in 1894 as a condemnation of the news media. Some things never change.
“Cheap Fake”?? As in KJP? Or does fraud fit better?
Non of this would be happening if the News was honest.
But again, if the news was honest , Trump would have won the last election and
the world and out country would not be a Shit storm at the moment.
I BLAME ALL DEMOCRAT NEWS OUTLETS FOR EVERY MURDER AND FOR EVERY UNJUST
VICTOM!
Cheap or deep fake, I agree with Horist that our current habit of branding everything to make the complex easy for the simple minded loses much in the translation. We are in the time of extreme slogans and brands.
On this one, I have a hard time understanding why “news” is even a relevant term. For the most part, these are clips on the web, often strung together to portray Joe in the worst light via “wag the dog.” techniques. Social Media is not the news, except to The Dumpster. Chat rooms and video rooms are not either, except for The Dumpster.
I believe that’s where you will find these clips. As such, each one should be vetted for accuracy, editing, etc. Horist says: “What you see is what you get.” Can you say “Wag the dog?” What you get is not necessarily what you see. I am sure we can string similar clips for Trump and many others in this world.
“This is just another example of Democrats wanting you to believe their campaign propaganda narratives over what we the people can see with our own eyes.” If I agree to this lame statement, can we talk about the 1.6.2021 tapes? Cuz you guys don’t believe your eyes there. Or how about 65 freaking court cases and a half dozen recounts —- any of you all believe your lying eyes there? Get it a rest Horist. You know better.
All true Frank, and Larry does not point out the most popular fake news and video editor of bad camera angles strung together is Sinclair Media which owns the majority of news agencies. According to news casters employed by Sinclair, they are required to read the right wing Sinclair Media talking point on every broadcast – even if they know the talking points are not true.
And Larry takes that fake news and further spins it into a one sided story that is always boo Dem, Yea GOP saviors!
And I agree with your comments on the Ernestine Dumpster, he and Oliver both must be taking lessons from Larry.
Yeah, but Horist did not get the memo on updating his picture.
Or maybe he did but has aged too much and is embarrassed by it. Hard to say. Maybe he really looks like the emperor in Star Wars?
Ice tea spew. Very funny. It’s a bit green, I’m going Yoda, but angry Yoda….
In this screed interlude of the less mendacious variety, Horist does what Horist do best: spins false narrative of coincidence-equals-correlation correlation-equals-causation by interweaving people and stories from a 30-year span from 1996 to current. It’s Bill Clinton to Joe Biden one for all and all for one to prove Horist’s real objective: Democrats bad. He spins all these independent people and actions together into a single common theme. Democrats bad. His reason for living. Democrats bad. It all he knows. Democrats…. However, like the deep fake tapes, there is not necessarily any connection between these people (or clips) Horist hates, these incidents, and Joe’s come tumbling down moments.
No more than Gerald Ford’s funny moments define Horist or the Republican party’s physical coordination challenges. Or that Horist’s horse face is the face of the Republican party. (still awaiting your ad hominem choice).
Let me try the Horist mirror again. How many times have we been told that our top-secret documents are secure in a bathroom and pool storage room at the swim club? Have you seen the pictures of the documents stacked, jumbled, in a bathroom or on a stage. Who has a stage in their house? How many foreign spies are members at Trump’s club? How many foreigners that might be spies? Have members been through security clearance? Has the bathroom been security hardened? His communist party member FIL lives in the cabana out back you know. Guess it’s good to keep our enemies close? Even marry into them? Saying he can wave a magic wand and now the things that no one can ever see, everyone can see. That’s fake news right upside your head.
How many times has Horist told us there was no insurrection, just some tourists gone wild. Have you seen the tapes? Have you seen the saucers? Does that look like spring break in Miami with tourists gone wild? But Horist looks you right in the eye and says — hey, that ain’t no riot. There just was a lack of police presence that caused the problem.
And do you remember the hurricane path done by Trump sharpie as fake news or real news. Because it certainly was the news. It’s a tape that never gets old.
How many times have American families been told that they were living in one of the best economies in American history? The Trump economy as brought to you by Barak Obama. Remember those clips? You must, you still believe them. Even as we saw no new coal jobs, no new coal mines. No new factories and the one’s announced never happen, just like the pictures of the new wall that was never built at the level the pictures indicated. His lie about energy independence caused by demand drop as proven by the EIA. Or one of the best: the clip where he explains how easy ObamaCare will be to fix. Or the chart showing Trump’s GDP growth that Hoover laughs at, fueled by so much free money that inflation was a done deal well before he crashed the economy while running the highest deficits ever as we printed more free money, crashed tax revenues, and never made the projected economic progress promised by these fake revenue-producing tax cuts.
Biden may be stiff, he may gaff, he may wing it, but he’s not even close to the lies shown in the Trump clips. Not even close.
At this time four years ago……. really? You folks constantly ask us if we were better off than we were four years ago apparently forgetting 2020 was the first year of covid. Tell you what, I will give you a Mulligan on this one Horist, you know we were knee deep in covid deaths, product shortages, highest unemployment, etc. And our lying eyes witnessed The WORST response plan of any developed nation or at least way down the pile. Fact is 2020 sucked because our covid response sucked as we were told to suck Clorox as our life expectancies dropped from all the death our lying eyes could see. Bodies stacked in vans because there was no room at the Inn, now that was an eye opening clip coming from NYC.
Yes, we are better off than four years ago, 2020.
Some very good points Frank. I disagree with the Horist horse face point. I was walking behind my neighbor who was walking his dog the other day. I could have sworn I was looking at Larry!!!
I listened to a lecture by a former special agent of our national security services yesterday. He said many in the organization consider Trump to be a Russian asset, and, they say they have evidence that Putin considers Trump an asset as well. They are very scared for our country to see Trump become president again.
Good points! Yes I have seen many of the tapes of 1/6. Sure looked much worse than Horist described. GOP is doing their best (And Larry is in the tank for them) to minimize the whole incident, even calling them heroes, patriots, and hostages!!! Larry never mentions how wrong this is.
Yes I remember the hurricane path that endangered many people when Trump had the National Weather Service redraw the path to his liking!
Yes I remember everything you said about what Americans were told, the factories never built, the infrastructure not built, the new health policy to replace the ACA that never happened but it was going to be sooooo incredible, the lateness in responding to the pandemic that probably caused many American deaths, the special treatment Trump got when he got Covid (treatment not available to most Americans), the failed attempt to stop weapons already bought and paid for from getting to Ukraine, the cozyness with Putin, telling us NATO and the UN were worthless organizations, and the untold things like turning the White House into a business, the grifting, the big Arab-Jarrod financial deals, supply line shortages and rising prices caused by Covid, etc. All are still very vivid memories that Trump, Sinclair, and Horist like to squash!
I bet Larry never drank bleach!!!!
The Steele Dossier was initially commissioned and paid for by Republicans as anti-Trump research, and even today, some is true, some is not. The intelligence team should have vetted better, their process was broken. Same with the Biden laptop, but there the press paused to validate. Not hide, validate. Same with the stolen diary that the Republicans just had to release to the public. That’s some picture — take a young women’s diary and show all. Real men. Real hate. And some of the laptop data is true, some is not. Just like Steele, just like the diary. You guys want release before validation when it’s the other side, but you are total pussies when it comes to releasing Trump into court to determine truth about 1/6, the documents, the rigging of the 2020 election, nope, don’t look behind the curtain on those……
I agree with Horist on “Unfortunately, fake stories that become fake news are ubiquitous in politics.” However, linking Santos to Biden is a false analogy. It’s apples and bananas. Blumenthal fessed up and can face the voters. Blumenthal never bragged about it as Horist fake-news tells it, that’s an old debunked lie Horist knows but ran anyway because it spins it his way. Unlike Captain Bonespur, Blumenthal did serve, reserves, and should have said “during” Vietnam, not “in” Vietnam. It’s a bad gaff, but he stepped up and owned it. Has Trump stepped up to 1/6/2021. Wasn’t that his party? I see the tapes; he is in them on the stage egging folks on. Nonetheless, none of these folks are on par with Santos except for Horist’s convenience in his spin. Trump is closer to Santos than any of these Democrats.
Has Trump ever apologized for his errors in judgement and other things? No, because an apology would be an admission he was wrong and that can never happen. He did not cheat his University Students or steal from his charity. Everyone cheats at business records. Him paying porn stars, playboy models, and a doorman is just business for rich guys and he never considered it would tank him against lock-her-up Hillary. His lawyers guilty of trying to rig the 2020 election are liars. He didn’t pay hush money to rig the 2016, and he’s not smart enough to rig the 2020 via fake electoral college members. His lying lawyers always do it. First the Cohen tapes and now Georgia. And you believe any of his tapes of him talking. He will never jump the shark for you folks. Heh, heh. And the Rudy tapes never get old.
All very good points! I think Trump is Santos on a much larger scale. Trump spews lies faster than fact checkers can check. This Thursday’s debate should be interesting!
This article gets a Stop The Spin (STS) rating of 3. Here is why:
1) Fox news edits videos such as the recent video with Biden and the skydivers to make it look like he is confused. They conveniently cut out who he is looking at and talking to.
2) Independent fact-checkers and the Biden campaign have pointed out that the videos, while they are un-doctored by artificial intelligence, tend to crumble under even basic scrutiny, such as when the moments are viewed in context or from wider camera angles. For more about how right wing media is pumping out fake news, see *https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/misleading-gop-videos-biden-viral-fact-checks-rcna133316* READ THE FACTS THAT LARRY WILL NOT MENTION IN HIS ARTICLES!
3) The article mentions Hillary Clinton in 2016 but fails to mention all of the fake news created by Trump against his primary opponents in 2016. In the Business Fraud and Election Interference trial for 34 counts of fraud, it was revealed by David Pecker that Trump use Pecker’s National Enquirer to spread many fake stories. This testimony is entered as evidence in the trial.
4) Judging from the President’s tweets, his (and Larry’s) definition of “fake news” is credible reporting that he doesn’t like. But he and Larry complicate the matter by issuing demonstrably false statements of his own, (or spin by Larry), which inevitably, make news or a boring Larry article. Trump has brought to the White House bully pulpit a disorienting habit of telling lies, big and small, without evident shame. Since 2015, Politifact has counted three hundred and twenty-nine public statements by Trump that it judges to be mostly or entirely false. If you want to read more about this master liar’s strategy (Trump) please read *https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/11/donald-trumps-fake-news-tactics* Judge for yourself!
And there ’tis – the side that Larry will not tell you in his articles!!!
My turn: Republicans bad, berry, berry bad. How many times have Republicans told you they are economic mavens. Horist says he is all the time. Hoover was the worst President ever ruining the economy and sending many to their death. Nixon promised law and order as he broke both as the kids at Kent State died. Bush’s lips can’t be read, he’s a tax and spend President. Both Bushes. One Bush lost the World Trade Center and got us into two wars, one war he started with fake WMD reports just to look good to Dad at Thanksgiving. And then— there’s Trumpy — worst deficits ever leading to worst debt ever, worst gdp growth, pandemic-fueled-surge in oil export lies, no new coal jobs, very few new factories, only President with less jobs at end of term than at beginning, Mexico did not pay for that wall and ObamaCare was not replaced by anything, much less something better. Yeah, this guy left the US in the worst health condition of any President in our entire history. IMO. He lowered our life expectancy.
Here’s the point. Horist cannot prove that any of these events or people have any correlation to each other. Linking them because they are Democrats? They are all white too. Maybe it’s a race thingee.
Horist says: “It is one thing to spin the facts through partisan interpretation.” You just have to love these guys who say they are going to rob you, to your face, and then do it.
“But quite another to use the news media to create and use phony narratives and phony “evidence” to create fake stories.” I am sorry, where is the news narrative for these clips? Certainly not evidence provided in the Horist mendacious screed of the nth kind. Horist mentions the clips that are all over the internet, but not one media outlet, not even FOX. Is he thinking what he sees on the internet is actually news, is true. Come to NJ, I have a bridge to sell you. It’s got Republican panache attached.
Vet the tapes and then air them if needed. But don’t believe what you see on the internet at face value like Horist. That’s stupid.