The website snopes.com described in Wikipedia as a "fact-checking website" and "as a 'well-regarded reference for sorting out myths and rumors'" has several examples of bias (if not straight fact-manipulation).
One undeniable exmample is the treatment of one of the leaked Podesta e-mails (copied at the end) has been described as "A leaked e-mail from former National Endowment for the Arts chairman Bill Ivey to Clinton campaign manager John Podesta revealed a Democratic "master plan" to "create an 'unaware' and 'compliant' citizenry", a claim that snopes.com says it is FALSE.", arguing this: "A more objective reading suggests that Ivey was actually stating the opposite, however — that a lack of awareness and a tendency toward compliance on the part of the citizenry in recent years was the result of the conflation of entertainment and the electoral process (as exemplified by the rise of Donald Trump), and these phenomena present a problem for democracy which must be countered."
The truth is that what the e-mail says is exactly what the "conspiracy theorists" claim. Maybe Ivey wanted to write what snopes.com but he wrote exactly the opposite, and snopes.com is lying when they say the claim is FALSE. But let's read carefully what Ivey says:
"And as I’ve mentioned, we’ve all been quite content to demean government, drop civics and in general conspire to produce an unaware and compliant citizenry. The unawareness remains strong but compliance is obviously fading rapidly. This problem demands some serious, serious thinking — and not just poll driven, demographically-inspired messaging."
He literally wrote: "The unawareness remains strong but compliance is obviously fading rapidly. This problem demands some serious, serious thinking". So according to Ivey, the "problem" is that "compliance is obviously fading rapidly".
One undeniable exmample is the treatment of one of the leaked Podesta e-mails (copied at the end) has been described as "A leaked e-mail from former National Endowment for the Arts chairman Bill Ivey to Clinton campaign manager John Podesta revealed a Democratic "master plan" to "create an 'unaware' and 'compliant' citizenry", a claim that snopes.com says it is FALSE.", arguing this: "A more objective reading suggests that Ivey was actually stating the opposite, however — that a lack of awareness and a tendency toward compliance on the part of the citizenry in recent years was the result of the conflation of entertainment and the electoral process (as exemplified by the rise of Donald Trump), and these phenomena present a problem for democracy which must be countered."
The truth is that what the e-mail says is exactly what the "conspiracy theorists" claim. Maybe Ivey wanted to write what snopes.com but he wrote exactly the opposite, and snopes.com is lying when they say the claim is FALSE. But let's read carefully what Ivey says:
"And as I’ve mentioned, we’ve all been quite content to demean government, drop civics and in general conspire to produce an unaware and compliant citizenry. The unawareness remains strong but compliance is obviously fading rapidly. This problem demands some serious, serious thinking — and not just poll driven, demographically-inspired messaging."
He literally wrote: "The unawareness remains strong but compliance is obviously fading rapidly. This problem demands some serious, serious thinking". So according to Ivey, the "problem" is that "compliance is obviously fading rapidly".
Let's put it in another way: if Ivey wanted to write what snopes.com claims he would have written "Although compliance is fading rapidly, the unawareness remains strong. This problem demands some serious, serious thinking", but he didn't write that. He wrote the opposite. Snopes.com is lying.
If he wanted to write what snopes.com says, then he has serious problems with building ideas, which seems hard to believe from someone who was a a senior policy fellow for Americans for the Arts and trustee of the Center for American Progress.
From:bi@globalculturalstrategies.com
From:bi@globalculturalstrategies.com
To: john.podesta@gmail.com
Date: 2016-03-13 17:06
Subject: From Bill Ivey
Dear John:
Well, we all thought the big problem for our US democracy was Citizens United/Koch Brothers big money in politics. Silly us; turns out that money isn’t all that important if you can conflate entertainment with the electoral process. Trump masters TV, TV so-called news picks up and repeats and repeats to death this opinionated blowhard and his hairbrained ideas, free-floating discontent attaches to a seeming strongman and we’re off and running. JFK, Jr would be delighted by all this as his “George” magazine saw celebrity politics coming. The magazine struggled as it was ahead of its time but now looks prescient. George, of course, played the development pretty lightly, basically for charm and gossip, like People, but what we are dealing with now is dead serious. How does this get handled in the general? Secretary Clinton is not an entertainer, and not a celebrity in the Trump, Kardashian mold; what can she do to offset this? I’m certain the poll-directed insiders are sure things will default to policy as soon as the conventions are over, but I think not. And as I’ve mentioned, we’ve all been quite content to demean government, drop civics and in general conspire to produce an unaware and compliant citizenry. The unawareness remains strong but compliance is obviously fading rapidly. This problem demands some serious, serious thinking — and not just poll driven, demographically-inspired messaging.
Rubio’s press conference yesterday AM was good and should be repeated in its entirety, not just in nibbles. I will attend the Clinton fundraiser here next week but as I can only afford the low level of participation may just get to wave without a “hello.”
I fear we are all now trying to navigate a set of forces that cannot be simply explained or fully understood, so it is and will reamin interesting!
Sent with a handshake,
Bill
Well, we all thought the big problem for our US democracy was Citizens United/Koch Brothers big money in politics. Silly us; turns out that money isn’t all that important if you can conflate entertainment with the electoral process. Trump masters TV, TV so-called news picks up and repeats and repeats to death this opinionated blowhard and his hairbrained ideas, free-floating discontent attaches to a seeming strongman and we’re off and running. JFK, Jr would be delighted by all this as his “George” magazine saw celebrity politics coming. The magazine struggled as it was ahead of its time but now looks prescient. George, of course, played the development pretty lightly, basically for charm and gossip, like People, but what we are dealing with now is dead serious. How does this get handled in the general? Secretary Clinton is not an entertainer, and not a celebrity in the Trump, Kardashian mold; what can she do to offset this? I’m certain the poll-directed insiders are sure things will default to policy as soon as the conventions are over, but I think not. And as I’ve mentioned, we’ve all been quite content to demean government, drop civics and in general conspire to produce an unaware and compliant citizenry. The unawareness remains strong but compliance is obviously fading rapidly. This problem demands some serious, serious thinking — and not just poll driven, demographically-inspired messaging.
Rubio’s press conference yesterday AM was good and should be repeated in its entirety, not just in nibbles. I will attend the Clinton fundraiser here next week but as I can only afford the low level of participation may just get to wave without a “hello.”
I fear we are all now trying to navigate a set of forces that cannot be simply explained or fully understood, so it is and will reamin interesting!
Sent with a handshake,
Bill
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