ED MORRISSEY: How Very Meta: Journalists Leaking to Journalists in ABC News Meltdown.

Want to know why Americans trust the media less than Congress and used-car salespeople? Greta Van Susteren highlighted one key manner of manipulation reporters and news orgs employ, even when reporting on the news industry itself.

Late yesterday, the New York Post reported that “Furious George” Stephanopoulos felt humiliated and betrayed by ABC News for shelling out $16 million to settle Donald Trump’s defamation claim. As John wrote last night, Stephanopoulos has made himself scarce on social media for the last few weeks as this percolated between the lawyers. In retrospect, ABC’s decision to have David Muir moderate the debate rather than Stephanopoulos might have been a hint that they had lost confidence in Stephanopoulos’ judgment — although Muir turned out to be a disaster anyway.

Now, this kind of story is why we use the “Too Good to Check” label. Of course we want people who falsify the news to feel “humiliated” as a result. But if Stephanopoulos has gone silent and ABC’s only offering press releases, how do we know that Stephanopouls feels humiliated and betrayed? Because several people inside ABC News want us to know it — although they don’t want to put their names to it.

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This is exactly how mainstream media orgs — and yes, even the NY Post falls into that category, as much as we enjoy their work otherwise — use Anonymice to manipulate readers and promote bogus narratives. Media orgs insist that anonymous sourcing is critical to their ability to report on malfeasance by people in power, and that may well be the case, but … how exactly does that apply to this story? Or for that matter, practically any story published these days on the basis of Anonymice?

Back in 2003 Virginia Postrel explored “Press Pathologies:”

Each national press corps seems to have its own pathology. For the American press, it’s the giant campaign swing, as applicable in military campaigns as in electoral contests. First the front-runner can’t lose. Then he’s a total disaster. Ditto the U.S. military in Iraq. The audience, reporters seem to believe, will reward drama.

The British press corps serves its market, in turn, by passing on every rumor someone tells a reporter in a bar. The result are lots of juicy stories, some of them true. As a former U.S. news editor told her editors after 9/11, when asked why her paper wasn’t getting the great stories in the British press, “They’re great stories. But they aren’t true.”

The fever swamp dreams the DNC-MSM conjured up in the wake of Trump’s surprise victory in 2016 in an effort to sink his presidency have rendered so much of their output as radioactive. Though it is fun in the wake of his second victory to see them devouring themselves.

SO AT THE RANGE THE OTHER DAY, I SHOT THIS Smith & Wesson 9mm folding carbine. I’ve never owned a pistol-caliber carbine, unless you count my grandfather’s WWII M1 Carbine, made by IBM. But this one has gotten a lot of buzz, so I put a box of ammo through it.

Thoughts: Easy to handle and shoot. Pretty accurate at the short ranges I was shooting at the indoor range (I shot at 10 and 25 meters). Stock has two holders for spare magazines. It comes with one 17 round and two 23 round magazines, so fully loaded you’ve got 63 rounds to hand. Removing a mag from the holder in the stock was a bit awkward at first — the release is like a rocker switch, and you press down on the side that’s above the magazine you’re not trying to remove. Easy once you know, but not intuitive. Each round put a puff of smoke in my face so that I smelled noticeably like cordite in my car afterward. The stock is one-size-fits-all (it looks like it should telescope, but it doesn’t.), and it was a bit short for me, something I didn’t notice at first, but was definitely noticing by the end.

As a 9mm carbine, it uses pistol-caliber ammo, which is cheaper. But the big appeal, of course, is that it folds. With the stock folded it’s short enough to keep in a backpack, and it’s safe because it can’t fire in that position. (As the linked review says: “The design offers a couple of advantages: It’s perfectly safe when folded because the action cannot go into battery, and the bore is easily accessed for cleaning.”) I guess the appeal is that you could keep it as a “truck gun” (or a “trunk gun”). That’s not something I typically carry, but some people do. I don’t like to leave a gun in my car as it’s just something someone might steal. At best I’m out the price of the gun, and if it’s a fully loaded and ready-to-rock gun then it’s likely dangerous in the hands of whoever would steal it. Under circumstances of civil disorder I might do differently, but if things reach the point that I have to go strapped against rioting mobs, I think I’d either carry an M4 or just stay home.

Still a cool little gun, uses relatively cheap ammo, usefully accurate out to 100 meters or so, and not terribly expensive.

KILL THE BILL:

However much contempt you have for Congress, it isn’t enough.

THEY KEEP GOING BACK AND FORTH ON THIS: Drinking a moderate amount of wine may lower the risk of serious cardiovascular disease in high-risk people. “Previous studies on the effects of wine on cardiovascular health have produced inconsistent results. This may be in part because research often relies on people reporting how much wine they drink. Instead, in the new study, researchers measured the amount of a chemical, called tartaric acid, in participants’ urine. Researchers say this is an ‘objective and reliable measure’ of wine consumption.”

WINNING: American Airlines Agrees to End Illegal Discrimination in Hiring, Recruiting, and Employment Practices Following AFL’s Civil Rights Complaint.

Last week, the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) notified America First Legal (AFL) that American Airlines has agreed to abandon the discriminatory employment practices AFL outlined in its federal civil rights complaint against the company. The airline acknowledged that recruiting and hiring based on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) violates federal laws and equal employment opportunities.

On January 17, 2024, AFL filed a complaint against American Airlines with the OFCCP, requesting an immediate investigation into the airline for non-compliance with federal contracting requirements. Despite receiving over $140 million in federal government contracts since 2008 and promising in accordance with Executive Order 11246 that it will not discriminate in hiring, promotion, or employee training because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, American Airlines has explicitly engaged in race and sex discrimination in hiring programs, Cadet Academy recruitment, and promotional processes.

On December 13, 2024, the OFCCP held an informal compliance conference with American Airlines in accordance with 41 CFR §60-1.24 (c) (2) to address the allegations detailed in AFL’s complaint. OFCCP’s investigation indicated a violation of the equal opportunity clause, requiring a compliance conference with American Airlines to resolve the matter. Following the compliance conference with OFCCP, American Airlines acknowledged and agreed to end its illegal race and sex-based discrimination in hiring and promotional practices.

The part where it’s illegal seems like kind of a big deal.

A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS: Lee Edwards was my first boss in the nation’s capital way back in 1975, a mentor in the decades thereafter and an admired friend through it all. My tribute in PJMedia.