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Glorified Gossip: A Case Study on American News

<p>If you happen to have been following my own various works on PBP &lpar;granting the admittedly massive and hopelessly optimistic assumption I’m someone worth your following&rpar; you might have noticed a distinct theme&comma; or should I say lacking theme&semi; while I’ll certainly cover the politics of America there’s a distinct gap in my writings when it comes to pure internal partisan squabbles&period; This general area of news is&comma; of course&comma; epitomized by &OpenCurlyQuote;RussiaGate’&comma; and the legion of endlessly &OpenCurlyQuote;breaking’ story on the likes of CNN and MSNBC for years now&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The reason for the dearth of stories in the area is fairly simple&semi; <strong>the news regarding the issues and subject matter that would generally qualify as hyper-partisan is about as reliable of &OpenCurlyQuote;news’ as middle school gossip&period;<&sol;strong> So&comma; in a curious little delve into a story that displays exactly what I mean&period; Let’s explore the whimsical world of deputy attorney general Rod J&period; Rosenstein&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Round 1&colon; Rosenstein Rises<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The tumultuous tale of Rod&comma; of course&comma; begins with the Trump administration&comma; namely its butting heads with an FBI set on a path of linking Trump and top officials to Russian collusion&period; Of course&comma; Rosenstein wasn’t actually all that publicly involved in the matter&comma; rather making various bureaucratic plays behind the scenes&comma; if the <em>incredibly reliable<&sol;em> news is to be believed &lpar;it’s not&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Anyhow&comma; the saga of the Rod begins with a different controversial bureaucrat altogether&semi; the now notorious former FBI director James Comey&period; See&comma; apparently &lpar;and by all means take that &OpenCurlyQuote;apparently’ literally as there are no facts here&rpar; <strong>Rosenstein’s writings were a cornerstone of the case Trump levied against Comey in his firing<&sol;strong>&semi; namely in the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;nytimes&period;com&sol;2018&sol;06&sol;29&sol;us&sol;politics&sol;rod-rosenstein-comey-firing&period;html&quest;module&equals;inline">form of a memo<&sol;a> breaking down Comey’s various incompetencies&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Of course&comma; at this point&comma; the media circus was abuzz with lambasting accusations of a &OpenCurlyQuote;Russian Puppet Regime’ with the firing of an FBI director they had just finished lambasting himself… apparently&comma; Comey was back in their graces after being accused of handing Trump the election 10 seconds earlier&period; Rosenstein and co were now the enemy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Round 2&colon; Rod the Redeemer &lpar;or Ruiner… depends on who you ask&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>See&comma; apparently our lad Rod <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;nytimes&period;com&sol;2018&sol;06&sol;29&sol;us&sol;politics&sol;rod-rosenstein-comey-firing&period;html&quest;module&equals;inline">wasn’t too pleased<&sol;a> with his memo explaining the failings of James Comey’s stewardship of the FBI being used to… well reprimand him for his failed stewardship of the FBI&period; While I’m not sure what Rod was expecting it to be considered for I guess it was enough to put him back in the graces of the media&semi; hey whoever’s against Trump&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Alright folks&comma; here’s where Rosenstein really takes a 180 to become a hero of the left&period; In the wake of Comey’s dismissal by Trump&comma; something our hero Rod unwittingly found his work at the center of&comma; Rosenstein set about appointing his redeemer&semi; the now infamous Robert &OpenCurlyQuote;wait and see’ Mueller&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As it were&comma; Democrats apparently got enough time in Rosenstein’s ear such that our hapless hero was <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;nytimes&period;com&sol;2017&sol;05&sol;17&sol;us&sol;politics&sol;robert-mueller-special-counsel-russia-investigation&period;html&quest;module&equals;inline">inspired to appoint a special counsel<&sol;a>&period; Mueller&comma; the new even bigger hero of all who hate Trump&comma; was set to the task of discovering what nefarious reasons could have inspired Trump to discard Comey&semi; with Rosenstein’s original criticisms of Comey &lpar;why he was fired…&rpar; now apparently water under the bridge&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Round 3&colon; He’s wearing a wire&excl;&&num;8230&semi; or wait maybe not<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Fair warning &&num;8211&semi; this is essentially where the story falls to shambles&period; But hey&comma; it wasn’t all that cohesive to start with…<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>So here we are&comma; with Rod Rosenstein quite literally commissioning an investigation into the same fellow he had originally decried as incompetent&period; Of course&comma; for the &OpenCurlyQuote;them vs&period; us’ media such a fence rider has proven problematic&semi; with the same sites and programs praising him after having demanded his head and vice versa&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But&comma; where things get wild&comma; and dare I say actually newsworthy&comma; is the saga of Rod’s wire&period; See&comma; Rosenstein apparently had to do more to rectify the firing of the man he had validated firing&period; And incredibly our hero’s dedication to the direction of the wind is actually rather extreme with Rosenstein <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;nytimes&period;com&sol;2018&sol;09&sol;21&sol;us&sol;politics&sol;rod-rosenstein-wear-wire-25th-amendment&period;html">offering to wear a wire<&sol;a> with President Trump&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; thanks to our fantastically useless news we actually have no real idea what’s going on with this&period; While you’d think a top attorney general official threatening to try to incriminate the President would be a generation defining story&comma; apparently the pathetic websites we’re forced to regard as &OpenCurlyQuote;news’ can’t even keep the facts straight&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Conclusion&colon; Rod where art thou&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I’ll leave you with this epitomizing example of what I’ve been rambling on about thanks to our laughable peer&comma; the Huffington Post&period; See&comma; HuffPo has been <strong>taking media idiocy to the next level by skipping straight to contradicting &ast;itself&ast;&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Yes&comma; seriously&period; See&comma; during the saga of Rod&comma; HuffPo decided it was done pretending to be news altogether&period; Was Rosenstein &OpenCurlyQuote;joking’ &lpar;hilarious&rpar; about the wiretap&quest; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;huffingtonpost&period;com&sol;entry&sol;rod-rosenstein-donald-trump-25th-amendment&lowbar;us&lowbar;5ba53007e4b069d5f9d29afa&quest;q7">HuffPo says yes&period;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Wait… but wasn’t Rosenstein serious about that&quest; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;huffingtonpost&period;com&sol;entry&sol;james-baker-fbi-rod-rosenstein-wiretap-trump&lowbar;us&lowbar;5bbede23e4b054d7ddef85c3">HuffPo also says yes<&sol;a>&semi; whichever helps you hate Trump more&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Of course&comma; for those of us who &ast;gasp&ast; waited for the facts to sort themselves out we’re coming to learn the pathetic middle school gossip is rooted in what it always is<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;washingtonpost&period;com&sol;world&sol;national-security&sol;rosenstein-mccabe-feud-dates-back-to-angry-standoff-in-front-of-mueller&sol;2018&sol;10&sol;10&sol;8a7e99fe-ccac-11e8-a3e6-44daa3d35ede&lowbar;story&period;html&quest;noredirect&equals;on&amp&semi;utm&lowbar;term&equals;&period;bedde35c1054">&comma; petty&comma; childish bickering<&sol;a>&period; Turns out Rod and FBI squabble like 6<sup>th<&sol;sup> grade girls&comma; and the news ate it up like peers in a schoolyard and regurgitated it unto the public ensuring we all became just a little more ignorant…<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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