Our Trump reporting upsets some readers, but there aren’t two sides to facts: Letter from the Editor
Our Trump reporting upsets some readers, but there aren’t two sides to facts: Letter from the Editor
This is a tough column to write, because I don’t want to demean or insult those who write me in good faith. I’ve started it a half dozen times since November but turned to other topics each time because this needle hard to thread.
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This is a tough column to write, because I don’t want to demean or insult those who write me in good faith. I’ve started it a half dozen times since November but turned to other topics each time because this needle hard to thread. No matter how I present it, I’ll offend some thoughtful, decent people.
The north star here is truth. We tell the truth, even when it offends some of the people who pay us for information.
The truth is that Donald Trump undermined faith in our elections in his false bid to retain the presidency. He sparked an insurrection intended to overthrow our government and keep himself in power. No president in our history has done worse.
This is not subjective. We all saw it. Plenty of leaders today try to convince the masses we did not see what we saw, but our eyes don’t deceive. (If leaders began a yearslong campaign today to convince us that the Baltimore bridge did not collapse Tuesday morning, would you ever believe them?) Trust your eyes. Trump on Jan. 6 launched the most serious threat to our system of government since the Civil War. You know that. You saw it.
The facts involving Trump are crystal clear, and as news people, we cannot pretend otherwise, as unpopular as that might be with a segment of our readers. There aren’t two sides to facts. People who say the earth is flat don’t get space on our platforms. If that offends them, so be it.
As for those who equate Trump and Joe Biden, that’s false equivalency. Biden has done nothing remotely close to the egregious, anti-American acts of Trump. We can debate the success and mindset of our current president, as we have about most presidents in our lifetimes, but Biden was never a threat to our democracy. Trump is. He is unique among all American presidents for his efforts to keep power at any cost.
Well done, whoever you are. Thoughtful and poignant.
By Chris Quinn, Editor, cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer
Whoever you are...
Thank you, anonymous person. Whoever you are!
If only we knew who this masked hero is!
Integrity is a beautiful thing.
Much as it offends some who read us, we will continue to tell the truth about Trump.
To quote Ben Shapiro if I may... "Facts don't care about your feelings." Trump's a traitor who incited a violent insurrection and continuing to support him after what happened on 1/6 makes you one too.
Don't quote Ben Shapir, he's an ass who thinks he debates people very well because he can yell louder. He's not the type of person you'd want to quote
It's apt in this case, because old Benchy is a massive right wing hypocrite who cares infinitely more about feelings than facts. Using his stupid words against him and his ilk when they do the very thing they bitch about is ok in my book.
but it's funny to use his quote when the facts argue against Ben Shapiro's beliefs
Eh? A broken clock and all?
Yeah, but remember that one time he had a zinger against an 18 year old kid at a college Q&A? It’s really been downhill since then for him.
Being British but having to talk american politics ive started looking to Wikipedia for somewhat non bias information, or more so I am able to easily follow the source which often leads to first hand testimonials, court documents and some such information.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_6_United_States_Capitol_attack
I find doing so gives me an advantage when combatting misinformation.
My uncle who seems to get all his insight from Ben Shapiro or as I say dry muff man, and Russell brand/Howard which ever is doing a pod cast theses days.
Anyway a lot of the right wing ideologs tend to side on conspiracy, hearsay. So be well informed and hopefully we can pull the working class away from these grifters.
Couldn't agree more
Unfortunately, it doesn't matter. The people equating the two will loudly proclaim to be leftists while simultaneously saying that Trump wasn't actually trying to interrupt the certification of Joe Biden, and that Trump actually was trying to STOP the 'unruly protest'. No amount of arguing can get through to people who have no interests other than smug contrarianism.
It does matter. Minds have to be changed one at a time. A constant drip is better than nothing.
This was strangely reassuring 🥹
I have yet to meet a leftist who doesn't think Trump is a piece of shit fash nepo baby rapist whose death will be celebrated. And I'm terminally online.
Stick around on here for a while - unfortunately, they're a constant problem.
I just met one. He doesn't think that Trump is a fascist. He thinks that Trump and Biden are the same. The thinks that we should bring the whole system of oppression down. He doesn't realise that in order to make change happen, we must make allies, that electing someone who wants to bring the democracy (even though it is flawed) is worse for his goals. He even repeats right wing propaganda.
They are few, but sometimes they can appear.
Learn to tell the difference between leftists and right wing trolls. Anyone can call themselves a leftist. There is no leadership in the leftist movements that have come within a thousand miles of equating Trump and Biden. Biden is an old school right wing corporate Democrat, not fascist Trumpian garbage.
Anyone who claims to be leftist and doesn't think trump committed insurrection is trolling you. Believing Biden is just as bad is another matter entirely.
You see this kind of comment intermittently from certain kinds of self-proclaimed leftists, where they parrot Trumpian claims about how he was actually trying to STOP the insurrection and is Totally Innocent and therefore it's Not A Big Deal if he wins again. Anything to feel better about helping him win against the filthy neolib Biden.
Believing Biden is just as bad is another matter entirely.
... is it? Because last I checked, there was a big difference between "Tried to overthrow a democratic process" and "Did not try to do so".
no one is equating them.
I think people have a hard time encountering criticism of Biden without reading into it some sort of comparative statement that is not usually intended. I have personally encountered this many times. I can even go out of my way to say things like "of course Trump is much worse" in various levels of detail and yet, without fail, someone will come along and say that by not offering unquestioning support to Biden I'm a secret Trump supporter trying to undermine Biden or some other wild accusation. I believe this type of interaction is most responsible for perpetuating the idea that people believe the two men are similar. By contrast I rarely see that opinion offered directly.
Kind of related: On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder book also talks about WW1 and WW2 and a lot of that rings bells. He doesn't mention trump by name, and frankly it applies to what's happening in other Western countries as well.
Highly recommend it, the book is also quite short and to the point.
If you don't want a book, he is reading it on his channel: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhZxrogyToZsllfRqQllyuFNbT-ER7TAu
Bunch of snow flakes ❄️❄️❄️
Conservative trash can't even make its own insults. Snowflake is a liberal insult to a sensitive liberal. Dumbasses like you use it because you aren't creative enough to come up with a better one. Do fuck off.
There are two sides of a fact. One side is the fact, the other side is the spin. Spinster work had to make the spin look like fact and bend the opinions of those who can't separate fact from fiction.
One side is based on evidence, while the other is based on conjecture and opinion.
Trump is the best thing to ever happen for the mainstream media. They don't have to report on much else but his shenanigans.
Less news stories about building housing
Less news stories about the abysmal Healthcare scamcare system.
Less news stories about a digital bill of rights
Less news stories about empowering worker co-ops and other labor movements.
Trump spam all day.
But the underlying problem is, you could literally elect a can of beans into the oval office, and it would do a better job than donald "dictator on day one only" trump. So there is no pressure on biden to even move... The lines are drawn between a fascist and a corporate shill. Choose your poison, Americans
For a corporate shill he is really helping out the union movement. I would say that here's more for workers rights then Obama is. And with less of the drone strikes. I think he could do more sure, but I don't see this guy going full corporate stooge and I feel like it's a knee-jerk reaction to claim he is.
You could at least eat the can of beans without getting an STD