We are a year and a half out from the 2020 elections and things are getting weird already. Not in a good way either.
On Monday the triple A baseball team of the Washington Nationals, the Fresno Grizzlies decided to run a, "patriotic," video between games of a Memorial Day double header. The clip, which someone within the organization picked up off YouTube, was supposed to be, "a moving tribute," to the armed forces.
Toward the end of the video former President, Ronald Reagan talked about the, "enemies of freedom." As he did the big screen first flashed a photo of a masked Antifa protester and North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un. Then, before getting to the late Fidel Castro, up popped an image of NY Congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
It took until a little after lunch on Tuesday for the team to start issuing apologies. They tweeted, "We're embarrassed we allowed this video to play without seeing in its entirety first. We unconditionally apologize to Rep Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) in addition to our fans, community, and those we hurt. It was a mistake and we will ensure that nothing like it ever happens again."
In other words the Grizzlies are saying they broadcast some random three and a half minute YouTube video to their fans without looking at the whole thing before it played. A club spokesperson later told USA Today, the employee who thought that would be a good idea had been, "identified," and he, or she is, "remorseful." He added the club would, not likely, do it again.
That, not likely, bit certainly instills confidence doesn't it?
The odious event comes on the heels of a couple of videos which originated in the bowels of far right wing internet sites. One is edited to show House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi slurring her words as if she is drunk, while the other is cut to make it look like she is stumbling helplessly over her words.
Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani tweeted the first to his 300,000 plus followers. Trump himself tweeted the second.
Once the video, which was slowed down to make Pelosi seem as if she was impaired, hit Facebook it almost immediately garnered over two million hits.
Giuliani eventually deleted his tweet, but refused to apologize for posting it. According to the former NYC mayor, "he didn't know," the video had been altered and had, "no reason to believe it was." He then asked, "Where do you go to check that it's inaccurate? How could I have figured out that it was inaccurate?" He also threw in a line about how that's the way she speaks anyway.
When asked about his posting of the second video, Trump responded the way he typically does. He lied. The Big Orange Guy said he, "...doesn't know about the videos."
Then we get to the core of the problem we'll all be dealing with for the rest of our natural lives--well--as long as the electrical grid holds up anyway. Facebook refuses to delete the video with the slurred words because, according to them, it doesn't have, "...a policy that stipulates that the information you post on Facebook must be true."
Monika Bickert, a Facebook spokesperson told CNN's Anderson Cooper, "We think it is important for people to make their own informed choice of what to believe." She went on to tell him Facebook is actively telling its users the video is fake even as it refuses to delete it. She added, "Our job is to make sure we are getting them accurate information."
Finally she told Cooper, "We aren't in the news business. We're in the social media business."
That despite the site having user, "News Feeds," which can be looked at and shared by just about two billion people world wide.
As has been said before, ad nauseam, the internet is both a blessing and a curse. The amount of information available on it is not only instantaneous, but profound. The problem is any liar, thief, and propagandist on this blue ball can pass off their bullshit as genuine and too many people are willing to believe it--especially when it comes to politics.
Welcome to the new millennia America. Caveat Emptor.
5-28-19
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