Groups | Search | Server Info | Login | Register

Groups > scruz.market > #9

After Ignoring Obama Scandals For 8 Years, Reporters Are Now Making Them Up About Trump

Cross-posted to 5 groups.

Show all headers | View raw

Fake News: For eight  years, it was virtually impossible to get 
reporters interested in legitimate Obama administration 
scandals. Now, they are so eager to run scandal stories about 
the incoming Trump administration that they are making them up.

Two stories from major news outlets demonstrate this.

First is the New York Times hit piece on Trump's pick for Energy 
Secretary, Rick Perry. It claimed that until days after Perry 
accepted the job, he "knew almost nothing about" the fact that a 
key function of the Energy Department is the stewardship of the 
nation's nuclear arsenal.

The story spread like wildfire, with journalists falling over 
each other to tweet out clever Perry put downs.

What was the Times' alarming claim based on? Nothing more than a 
twisted interpretation of a single quote from one person: 
Michael McKenna, a Republican energy lobbyist who was canned 
from the Trump transition team before Perry was picked. McKenna 
himself has since said the Times misinterpreted what he said.

Apparently, the Times reporters and editors were so eager to get 
this bogus story out before Perry's nomination hearings started 
that they didn't bother to read the statement Perry himself 
issued on the day he accepted the nomination: "I look forward to 
engaging in a conversation about the development, stewardship 
and regulation of our energy resources, safeguarding our nuclear 
arsenal, and promoting an American energy policy that creates 
jobs and puts America first." (Emphasis added.)

Does that sound like someone who didn't know about this part of 
the Energy Department's portfolio?

The story was so egregiously wrong that even the liberal New 
York magazine took the Times to task for spreading a false rumor.

Just days before, CNN ran a hit piece on Rep. Tom Price — 
Trump's pick to head the Health and Human Services Department — 
for supposedly engaging in insider trading last year.

A "bombshell" story published on Tuesday — titled "First on CNN: 
Trump's pick invested in company, then introduced a bill to help 
it" — said Price had bought as much as $15,000 worth of shares 
in Zimmer Biomet (ZBH), a company that makes knee and hip 
replacements. Then, the story goes, he introduced the HIP Act, 
which would have delayed an ObamaCare regulation that would, if 
implemented, hurt Zimmer Biomet and other device makers.

This, CNN reporter Manu Raju asserted, raised "new concerns 
among ethics experts that Price may have inappropriately used 
inside information while purchasing shares in a company."

"When you look at the timeline, this raises significant 
questions," CNN's Erin Burnett said about the story.

Sen. Charles Schumer responded to the CNN report with a call to 
delay Price's confirmation hearings until the congressional 
ethics office does a "thorough investigation."

It's not as though this sort of self-dealing hasn't gone on in 
Washington. Peter Schweizer's 2011 book, "Throw Them All Out," 
was full of such examples, including lucrative stock trades by 
Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry and other prominent Democrats. 
Schweizer's book led to the STOCK Act in 2012, which tried to 
combat insider trading by lawmakers.

But the only "significant questions" CNN's story about Price 
raises have to do with CNN's credibility as a news source.

It's worth noting at the outset that the HIP Act had zero chance 
of making it into law. In fact, it didn't even make it out of 
committee, and would have been promptly vetoed if it had managed 
to make it to President Obama's desk. Anyone involved with the 
legislation at the time would have known this, including Price. 
(Congressmen introduce bills all the time that they know aren't 
going anywhere.)

The rest of the CNN story falls apart with just a cursory look 
at the facts.

First, Price didn't buy those shares. His portfolio was managed 
by Morgan Stanley, which designed the account's investment 
strategy and directed all trades. As part of a routine 
rebalancing of Price's account in early 2016, Morgan Stanley 
bought 26 shares in Zimmer Biomet, worth a grand total of 
$2,697.74. (Price's net worth is on the order of $10 million.)

The timing of that transaction doesn't implicate Price in any 
way, either. Morgan Stanley bought those shares in mid-March, 
but didn't tell Price about that trade, or any of the others it 
made during its rebalancing, until April 4.

That was nearly two weeks after Price introduced the HIP Act, 
which, because everyone knew it was a dead letter, had no impact 
on Zimmer Biomet's stock price anyway.

In other words, there is no story here, much less a scandal.

The fact that CNN pretended that there was one says nothing 
about Price's ethics. It does, however, say plenty about the 
blatant partisan bias of today's "independent" press.

NOTE: This was updated to include the New York Times story about 
Rick Perry.

http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/media-malpractice-
in-the-age-of-trump/
    

Back to scruz.market | Previous | Next | Find similar

Thread

After Ignoring Obama Scandals For 8 Years, Reporters Are Now Making Them Up About Trump "Nancy Pelosi Is Also Guilty" <investigate.pelosi@cnn.com> - 2017-05-29 23:39 +0200

csiph-web