210 Comments

"With Hamas cutting back, AP staffers will have nowhere left to go."

Brilliant. This is why you're my daily must-read, Don!

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Agree. This was the eye-opening line of the article. The broader public finally realized how corrupt media was in supporting Hamas while they sorted through their horrors of Oct 7th. The two are indelibly locked and associated with each other.

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How long has Don been calling them Hamas shielding AP? We've all made note of it. AP act like nobody noticed.

Everyone noticed, it's that the few they listen to are anti-Semitic or don't care.

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And this is why we pay our leader Don the big books bucks, five bucks a month per person. Since he doesn't have a Bentley yet I assume that's not too much and even if he had a Bentley it wouldn't be too much.

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"We must be accurate, and we must be believed to be accurate. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but we are failing on the second requirement."

WaPo failed the second because they had been failing the first for decades.

"We must work harder to control what we can control to increase our credibility."

Perhaps Jeff has awakened to the fact that they can't control the facts.

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The fact that he stated that being accurate and being believed to be accurate is a bitter pill to be swallowed, tells you all you need to know.

He’s telling them to just suck it up -because telling the truth may be so distasteful for them - and just give the appearance of being accurate and maybe we can fool them until we’re back in power.

It’s all a big propaganda psyop.

They’re not the least bit interested in changing, just how they can get away with it a bit more cleverly.

They’ve got to go.

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Speaking from experience, being able to actually hold a newspaper in one's hands as I held the WSJ for years, is a hard habit to break, but once I got over that hurdle and began getting my news from other sources, I didn't miss it - just like quitting smoking - yuck!

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I agree, it seems unlikely; but stranger things have happened, and I am very hopeful that in the Trump era they will.

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Nicely said. And hopeful. Faith hope and love. But of course, undergirding that, is grace which God gives to those who have been humiliated. My message.

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"It's a bitter pill to swallow." That's called a "tell." Or saying the silent part out loud.

It might be too late for many of these media outlets. Reputations lost are not easily retrieved as people change a lifetime of habits, and they won't be returning.

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I am patiently waiting for an alternative to Amazon so I can stop buying anything from that "Commie-Capitalist". He wants it both ways, and sadly he currently does have it both ways. But we need to end his monopoly.

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11/19/24: Place this in this context: For a decade-plus, Bezos "controlled the facts" by allowing the Amazon product ratings (1 to 5 stars) to be completely corrupted. Sheer garbage for sale --- YOU COULD SEE THIS --- was awarded 5,000 "five-star" reviews by Chinese loons writing execrable English ("Me like product"). NOBODY complained. How the the world could he NOT assume that he could do the same for WaPo? ("EVERYONE is for sale!"). My only regret is that, compared to his total wealth, the money he's lost on CraPo is only a rounding error.

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He wants to get the Posts value back up to unload it. Simple economics. As for his Amazon practices, the company is simply an outlet for Chinese junk.

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11/19/24: What miracle can be wrought to possibly raise the moribund value of CraPo? Do they own the real estate under their building? As for Amazon, we ordered a printer about four weeks ago. Found out that HP [SHORT HP STOCK!] decided that the proles (me) should not have a printer that accepts data from "obsolete" Microsoft 7 [Microsoft 11 is a disaster, which the entire world knows]. Sent it back. Ordered another, different one. Amazon lost it and issued a credit. Ordered another one. Amazon lost that one too. The fourth printer is now allegedly on the way, says the company that now can easily be mistaken for Boeing... I must say, though, that these events have proven that I was printing way too much stuff that probably should have been tossed.

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I buy local. It employs my neighbors.

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11/17/24: I do the same when possible, but big-ticket items are held hostage (as are the customers) by the international conglomerates.

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Best Buy hires my neighbors. (TV's, Computers, Printers) Got my fridge from Lowes. They hire my neighbors too.

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I, too, found that I over-printed; I kept finding printed articles that I had no idea I had. So I've cut back. Might be interesting to see how the use of printers generally has fared.

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Depending on the buyer I guess that’s good news. I’d certainly like to see Jeff out of the news and entertainment biz and put his attention on getting the Chinese out of American retail. Although I didn’t adhere to the Fauci rules during Covid, many of my senior neighbors in mortal fear during ‘lock down’ did and I’d say a majority depended on Prime deliveries for essential’s. Many no longer drive so for those previously independent souls Amazon was a life saver. I live in a nest of Democrats and try to keep my politics private. I only learned just prior to the election that my next door neighbor is MAGA. For the few Trumpers on the property of 200 we are grinning from ear to ear and trying (sorta) not to rub it in. Winning is not tiring at all. But in order to maintain civilities in this insular community we have to play our cards well. More than that would just be virtue signaling.

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"nest of Democrats" and "winning is not tiring at all" are great ones Patricia! I am happy every single day just thinking of the election and laugh at all of the pushback his Cabinet nominees get. Like YEP, we're coming, get ready!!

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Oh yes, I can't nor do I want to stop smiling.

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I cannot figure how to get those temu pop ups off my screen and I will NEVER buy anything from that dubious (to say the least) site. I am a Made in the USA person and it's worth the extra $$$.

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I believe when our new fearless leader assumes office on Jan 20, we will begin seeing more MADE IN USA options available -

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Well,if you ever do figure out how to, let us know. They seem to on darned near every website I go to.

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If you ever figure out how to do it let's us know. They seem to be on darned near every website I go to.

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search on DuckDuckGo "temu pop ups" You will get hundreds of sugestions for different platforma to get rid of them.

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Thank you Ms. Bert

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AMEN. TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY AND TIME.

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Amazon is my only outlet to the outside world. Sadly, half the stuff gets returned. Love the Sin. Hate the Sinner.

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11/19/24: P.S. The worthless NY Post (RINO to the end!) published a breathless "expose" this week on Fake Amazon Product Reviews. AS IF this situation hasn't been perfectly obvious for the past two decades!

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In the end, it’s always about the money. The bell has rung for him. Time to unload the Post.

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Can he do it and break even? I doubt it.

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I doubt it too, but I also doubt the $ matters. What did Elon lose on X? Something like $40 billion?? I think the prestige and influence are more impt to Bezos and that is what he's attempting to recapture.

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Never. Impossible.

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I HOPE NOT!!!! LOL

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I think you misspoke. You meant "make up the facts," didn't you?

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The Babylon Bee has more honest reporting than the Bezos Fish Wrap.

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Nov 19Liked by Don Surber

Don Surber is the Joe DiMaggio of substack. Hit after hit after hit. Thank you sir, may you also be Substacks Lou Gehrig.

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[11/20/24: Note: I got Joe DiMaggio and Lou Gehrig (the player who was stricken with ALS) mixed up. I'll let this stand as a reminder to be more damned careful the next time.] Except for the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

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Wrong Yankee. It was Lou Gerig that stuffed from ALS

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By golly, you are correct. And it will be changed. Thanks for letting me know!

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And like Dimaggio he makes it look easy.

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Nov 19Liked by Don Surber

Just as this current administration ( and even longer) has worked feverishly to commandeer and control the output of the social media sites, they also have thoroughly commandeered the entire legacy media, including all of the network and cable news, the newspapers, magazines, and Hollywood. They are all populated not with journalists, or newscasters, or producers, writers and actors, but with activists, all singing from the same propaganda hymnal.

Increasingly, more and more people are not buying what they are selling, and money is powerful motivator - the #1 motivator when you are running any business.

They may try to put on some lipstick (Mika and Joe), to try to salvage whatever’s left, but they are still pigs, with no moral compass, and worse, an agenda.

As long as the same people remain in charge, or on screen, spewing and spinning their nonsense, nothing will ever genuinely change, it will just go more underground.

They have lost trust, something they are incapable of realizing is far more valuable than money.

They all need be exposed, shamed and disgraced, and then dust-binned.

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Agree. People like Joe and Bubbles are everywhere in the DC orbit. They live off of it. Will be interesting to see how that may change if Trump is successful in reduceing or eliminating the shadow government that is our federal workforce.

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I'm pretty sure that when the deep state cutting starts the MSM will point out every fault and injury. Expect tearful interviews of people laid off. The MSM is not in favor of reducing the Deep State and their shows will reflect it. A RIF is very painful. I was in one in my younger days. I was lucky to be fairly inexpensive so like the Angel of Death, it passed over me. Cost cutting is very painful for the cutees.

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Nov 19Liked by Don Surber

I laughed out loud - that 60% of us chose BabylonBee. Because you gotta know that where there is satire, there is truth. "Made ya look!" is a great strategy.

Bezo seems an intelligent guy, and appears to understand where our shoes will be taking us if they don't get it right. A new day may be dawning. Independents such as yourself and the alternate news universe (long form podcasts, etc.) are changing the landscape.

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Watch what happens to Amazon if Trump brings manufacturing back here from offshore, especially China. Amazon prices will go up and they will have to compete with other sites dollar for dollar. Old chrome dome and the bimbo will not be one of the worlds richest when that happens. Bezos owes his wealth to one country: China.

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I MIGHT SURVIVE IF TRUMP BRINGS BACK MANUFACTURING TO USA. IF WE DO NOT START AGAIN TO SUPPORT OURSELVES, WE WILL NOT LAST LONG.

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If he decides to lead the revolution in retail I don’t care.

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Don’t give Bezos too much credit; he’s a little late to the party.

The Bee’s supposed to be satire but over time has proven prophetic. Bezos et al might have better timing is they read The Bee.

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Better late than never - I'm thinkin' they're thinkin'. With the 'mandate' given Trump this go round and having his stellar team executing the anti-election theft strategy, the writing has to be on the wall for these fools.

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Nov 19Liked by Don Surber

The legacy media was actually the propaganda arm of the Marxist/Democrat/Hate America Party. They deserve to be in financial and political purgatory because they failed in their “fourth estate” role of protecting the people from government tyranny. In fact they became and remain this country’s most dangerous fifth column. Good riddance to the bunch of Marxists that they are!

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11/19/24: Not strongly worded enough. Re-write! (kidding!).

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Perhaps he'll tell us how he really feels.😊

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He did a perfect job of it on the first go-round.

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😒- Perfection in an imperfect world? Not bloody likely.

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Fritz Perls agrees...

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Cannot thank you enough, Mr Reed. Often, I don't know what I don't know. Conferred w/McGoogle, and came up with enough memes for 40. articles. He

was a genius. I shall call them perls of wisdom.😁

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Don, you’re lucky to be living in a red West By God Virginia. I lived in the eastern panhandle for 9 years mid 80’s to mid 90’s when the state was royal blue. Almost heaven these days!

As to changes in the media, I will believe it when I see it. Way back in 2016, after Trump shell shocked the media by denying Hillary her coronation, the NY Slimes announced that it would change its leftist ways and become more balanced. And we all know how that turned out.

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11/19/24: I agree, completely. See this as to why this fake humility and bogus introspection is complete BS, as exemplified by the always reliably reprehensible Walter "Fake" Isaacson: https://jameshowardkunstler.substack.com/p/beyond-consequence?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2076970&post_id=151818614&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=10j5hz&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

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Leopards do not change their spots.

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Absolutely true. They never change.

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But we're not leopards. We are carbon 12 which one extreme heat and pressure is put on it and boy have we had that lately we turn from black to crystal clear and the heart of substance on earth. It is who we are. And I suspect things will get worse before they get better. Of course I'm having a riot but I am in deep grief with the anticipated heartache that our little sister nation Israel is going to go through In any case we will stick with them. Right gang?!

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Hardest substance on Earth. Learning to dance with my AI secretary.

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WEST VIRGINIA, THE MOST BEAUTIFUL STATE IN THE UNION...FROM DAY ONE.

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Beautiful thing about being in a mental health support group is you can say anything wrong right you can say anything you want to say even if it's wrong. I love you guys.

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Nov 19Liked by Don Surber

The Babylon Bee is nothing if not prescient.

The difference between a conspiracy theory and fact used to be 6 months, but that timeline seems to be shrinking.

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Yes, reality is undefeated and the great homeostatic mechanism of life. For better or for worse we don’t get to make all the rules. Libtards are finding this out, luckily without a violent revolution. Because that’s also a risk.

Now why these imbeciles aspire to recreate the failure of Socialism in the world’s most capitalist society, the birthplace of constitutionally based democratic institutions built on the idea of individual freedom, rights, and responsibilities is another story.

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Perfect term for Reality--"the great homeostatic mechanism of life".

And I'm glad you used the word "imbeciles". It is incredible that part of the Marxist campaign to win America was to paint the Left as "smarter and more righteous", while smearing the Right as "stupid and racist". The unescapable reality is that the Left was gullible and emotionally vulnerable to falling for a colossally bad ideological system (Marxism) that convinced them that they were "superior" for being part of it.

(Heck--90% of liberals STILL don't even realize that it is Marxism they have been supporting. Hence, the word "imbecile" is unavoidable. And the reason why liberals were vulnerable to the Left's flattery, was that (and OK, I'm generalizing and pushing it a bit) liberals have gravitated to atheism, and lack a spiritual grounding that would have provided them with a more spiritual basis for feeling a sense of individual "value" and "goodness", and they wouldn't have needed to gain self-value from feeling so superior to their fellow man. Most forms of spirituality teach SOME element of Humility. It's hard to express Humility when you're obsessed with feeling superior to your fellow man.

The word "imbecile" is also important, because although we still have alot of work to do in untangling the Left's grip on power, we need to NOT fall into the trap of being "impressed and intimidated" by the Left. They are not actually all that smart, and we have had quite a year of seeing them shoot themselves in their own feet and self-destruct.

Maybe one could say that this all shows that SOME degree of spirituality is also a necessary component of Reality's "homeostatic mechanism".

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It's hard for some to believe in a God. What's not hard is to believe in the Culture of Christianity. People participating in the Christian culture are just happier and content. The culture provides all you need to know to be successful and content in life. More should try it.

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All good points, and I fully agree that they are not as "smart" as they think. But when it comes to political intrigue, boy, are they wily.

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EXCELLENT POST!!! THANK YOU, TPG!

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Please don’t call them “liberals” or “progressives”. They are neither.

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People who believe they are smarter than everyone else always ignore history and tell themselves “it didnt work because they weren’t as smart as they are”. They ifnore reality.

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Ah Tonto......

"Now why these imbeciles aspire to recreate the failure of Socialism in the world’s most capitalist society, the birthplace of constitutionally based democratic institutions built on the idea of individual freedom, rights, and responsibilities is another story."

Remember Obama saying on Oct 30, 2008 "We are 5 days away from fundamentally transforming The United States of America." Marxist in chief. For 16 years, he tried very very hard. Trump = slayer in chief.

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As far as Mika and Joe the alternate meaning of the word "whore" comes to mind.

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11/19/24: This is true. They are utterly shameless. Like Bart Simpson, they sold their souls each for $5.

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Well they both got very wealthy at it but what good is the money if you have mo soul afterward?

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11/19/24: Well, it is dismal but necessary to admit that the money keeps the wolf from the door. But the wolves tearing away at the tattered remains of their consciences do not accept legal tender...

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AND NOW, PROBABLY NO JOBS, FRIENDS, REASON TO LIVE.....

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Be careful: "mo soul" sounds racist.

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I AGREE! THESE TWO ARE THE POSTER CHILDREN FOR "USELESS MORONS WHO NEVER THINK ANYTHING THROUGH"

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Nov 19Liked by Don Surber

I voted for The Babylon Bee not because I thought it was the funny answer to the question (even though it was). I voted for The Babylon Bee because I truly believe their carefully engineered satire is far more accurate to the truth than the outrageous lies of mainstream media, written to achieve CIA Psy-ops, community organizing, and deep state goals.

The irony.

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Agree; well said--"carefully engineered satire". Babylon Bee is super-smart. My two favorite recent headlines were "Doctors stop asking concussion patients 'Who is the President', because no one really knows anymore." And the other day--"Fattest, Sickest Country On Earth Concerned New Health Secretary Might Do Something Different". Brilliance.

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TPG, YOU ARE ALWAYS RIGHT ON TARGET. GREAT POST!

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Amen Shrugged !

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Nov 19·edited Nov 19Liked by Don Surber

We cancelled our local paper, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, in 2009 after we saw their coverage of a Tea Party rally that we had attended on the capitol grounds in St Paul. We already knew that the paper was editorially lopsided, and were continually frustrated with their coverage of both local and national politics, but our first-hand experience was contrary to the article which contained both outright lies and omissions, and was dismissive of both the attendees and the messaging. The photos that ran with the piece were selected to mislead readers as to the number of attendees and diversity of the crowd. There was no photo of the crowd that extended about 150 yards from the Capitol steps to the street, instead running a photo taken from the ground at the front of the crowd, looking up to show a row of about a dozen attendees. They showed a white man at the lectern but failed to show the keynote speaker who was a woman, and ignored the fact that there were black, hispanic, Asian and native American speakers. It confirmed that the paper was not a credible source for news, and provided the same epiphany for us that many people are having now with cable and network news: lying about Republicans and conservatives is their default, and at best they're only sorry for getting caught. I doubt many people will notice when the paper inevitably goes under.

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Nov 19Liked by Don Surber

The Charleston [SC] Post and Courier is trying very hard to be a newspaper and I have been buying the Sunday Edition. This week there was an obituary of a woman who was 6 years old and living on Oahu on December 7, 1941. She eventually lived in the West coast city where my wife lived most of her adult life and was in the same service industry as my wife. The obit gave my wife reason to connect with old friends. Just an odd coincidence that two women a generation apart with a connection, both of them ended up in the same South Carolina city.

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I LOVE WHEN SOMETHING POSITIVE AND AMAZING HAPPENS..... I HOPE YOU WILL KEEP US POSTED HERE AND THERE.

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deletedNov 19
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11/19/24: Good morning! Click on the three dots to the right of the bottom of the comment. A box should pop up. Click on "Edit." Go from there.

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Nov 19Liked by Don Surber

Sure sounds like the tail is now wagging the dog. Traditional media no longer controls the narrative but rather the audience is now starting to control the media. Me thinks they are a little too late to keep their head above water. The trust and credibility are gone.

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Well put.

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Nov 19·edited Nov 19Liked by Don Surber

It is said of insurance companies that "the marketing department and loss-mitigation dept are galaxies apart".

It's been a long time coming and the MSM employed ranks feel the HATE flowing much more than any other vibe. Why not? They've eaten well taking this tack since the mid-80's and only insulted their audiences as circulation declined and ratings suffered. They see none of the wreckage around them.

Rush Limbaugh pointed out years ago that Newsies considered news divisions losing money was a sign of virtue. That vibe still holds today. Scrolling MSM reporters on X or the viewing the temporary flight to 'BlueSky' of leftist journalists can easily tell one that while corporate media has noticed a disturbance in the force (what was their 1st clue?), their employed writers & personalities haven't read or received a memo regarding this shift.

FIRE THEM ALL! would be glorious to watch. I mean what can a fired journalist say about their former employer that those same journalists haven't already said about any other corporate target (except BIG Pharma)? The MSM's default has been anti-American. It's reflexive and has been for decades. It's rife thru-out the schools the credentialed classes get diplomas from. A whole takedown has to happen from the roots up to the highest branch. It's ALL gotta go in the chipper, or at least busted up like furniture for a fireplace in wintertime Detroit.

FNC, Bongino, InstaPundit, the Surber's, Ace and the right-of the Right are the only ones that have been banging this drum for a very long time. Every other outlet has lost viewers, money, sanity and credibility.

The clues are all around yet the media chose prideful ignorance was chosen over reality. We couldn't care less at this point. Our derision is earned. Their contempt was noticed long before Musk got that F-You tweet & moved from California to Texas.

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The good guys are watching what's really going on and report on it. The Baddies are watching what's going on and ask their political friends "How should we slant this to support your narrative".

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THANK YOU FOR THIS EXCELLELNT SUMMATION!

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