Ethics – RAnt(hony)-ings

Daily Pandemic Deception, Foiled

All news outlets should follow NPR’s lead. There is no other way to counter the harm that Donald Trump’s bullshit is doing to the country other than to shut him off at the source. Don’t air the coronavirus briefings live. Edit out his misleading bullshit, then air the medical people talking about real stuff later. Save the parsing of Trump’s bullshit for people who want to explain what he says to the people who actually listen to and believe his bullshit when he speaks. His Stormtrumpers.

Save the Stormtrumpers? Sometimes it is best to let nature take its course; and letting the stupid people who believe Donald Trump die from their stupidity might be the only way to save democracy in the United States. This is a problem that they created. It is fitting that they pay the price for their own stupidity. Pay the price for relying on a single news source and never bothering to fact-check anything they hear.

FOX news is the common denominator. It is no wonder that FOX news is now worried about being punished for misleading the public at the beginning of the pandemic. Ya think? Maybe they should have thought a little harder about it earlier. Like in January, when it would have made a difference.

Trump was watching FOX before he stumbled into the presidency, and he’s still watching FOX as a replacement for all his daily briefings before he goes out and repeats the same shit he heard on FOX, shit that they say because he wants them to say it, tells them to say it. The problem for both Republicans in general and their president in particular is that they get their information from a source that makes shit up. Once you realize this simple fact, it becomes plainly obvious that we cannot allow anything like FOX news to continue to exist.

Either your information service contains real, factual information, or it can’t be allowed to continue. If the creator’s intent is to mislead, then the content should be squelched somehow. At the very least it shouldn’t be piped into every American’s home through an infrastructure paid for and maintained by public funds. If they go out and make themselves victims on purpose, there is little we can do to protect them from themselves.

Then this happened:

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has come under fire from far-right and ultra-conservative groups supporting Trump for what they perceive as efforts to undermine the president on the coronavirus pandemic, The New York Times reports.
thedailybeast.com

…and this is precisely why the party of Trump and it’s supporters must be driven out of power. It is our duty as good citizens to see them pushed as far away as possible from the levers of control. The promoters of science and public health are targeted by the people who just want to pretend that everything is normal.

The lines have been drawn. The separation between the sides could not be starker than they are right now. Either you want authoritarian, Christianist, capitalism under Donald Trump, or you want humanist values to win the day. Either you want a future where the rich rule like kings, or you want a future where everyone should be given some minimal assurance that their life has value in the system. Choose.

Facebook, Facebook, Twitter, Facebook, Pluspora

Postscript

Here’s how to not be mislead. Let Stonekettle Station translate Trump’s gibberish for you, then fact-check the parts you still aren’t clear on.

Here is the Stonekettle Station pandemic digest from March 29th. The one where Trump accuses nurses of lying to make Trump look bad.

Wednesday’s Trump dump.

The short-lived nightly coronavirus bullshit festival finally came to an end, but not before Trump killed more than a few of his followers by misleading them about what was a healthy response to coronavirus infection. This is why I blame Donald Trump for every coronavirus death in the United States. The buck stops at the resolute desk, and he was sitting behind the desk when something could have been done to limit the damage. Instead of doing that job, Trump made the damage worse so he gets the blame for all of it.

Journalist Ethics

Our starting point at Mother Jones, I wish I’d said, is not the view from nowhere. Our journalism comes from somewhere. It comes from a passion for justice, fairness, and a democracy where facts matter and all can participate. That’s not a partisan agenda, because these values are bigger than party. But it is a point of view.
Fairness and accuracy are not served by pretending to have no point of view. They are served by acknowledging where you’re coming from and then being rigorous about following the facts where they lead.
Credible science uses the scientific method: Hypothesis, experiment, replicable result. Credible journalism uses the journalistic method: Seek out different points of view. Look for evidence that might contradict your assumptions. If your mother says she loves you, check it out. And, of course, fact-check the hell out of every detail.
Mother Jones – It’s Time for Journalism to Stand for Something

It’s Time for Journalism to Stand for Something

motherjones.com

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

This story has been making the rounds lately:

Austin ISD wants to fire an Austin High School teacher over nude photos posted on the Internet.
She defended her actions in a blog by saying that the pictures are not pornography but “artistic photography.”
According [the teacher’s] attorney, she never told students about the photographs, nor are they on her own Web site. The district learned about these pictures through another teacher.
“The teacher who was there said, ‘Whoops, something’s happened here that shouldn’t.’ She shut down the computer and went and told the principal about it,” said Jay Brim, attorney. “What [the teacher] did is leave herself vulnerable to this kind of problem. She did not do anything that I believe was violative of any of the districts standards or rules.”
The process to fire [her] will take months, but her attorney thinks they have a good case and her photographer says this is about art.
“The definition of pornography is material with no artistic or aesthetic value — created for the sole purpose of stimulating sexual arousal. That’s not my intent at all,” said Celesta Danger, photographer.
kvue.com (via Archive.org)

I was talking to the daughter about it earlier (she’s an aspiring artist herself) She couldn’t figure out what the fuss was all about. Personally, I don’ know either. If you check out the photos here you may be just as mystified.

Flickr is a photo sharing site. The woman who posts the photos isn’t the teacher, she’s the teacher’s lover. Try browsing the photos; I did. I can’t find one objectionable photo in the group, unless you find lesbianism objectionable. So what this is about isn’t the photos per se, it’s the fact that there is a gay teacher teaching art at Austin High School.

…Aside from which, this isn’t a question for the school board; or rather, it shouldn’t be. It should be a question for the parents whose children attend this teacher’s classes. Do you or don’t you want her to teach? In any other city in Texas the answer would probably be ‘NO’. Until today I would have sworn that Austin was different.

Postscript

She was eventually convinced to resign. While the photos were suggestive, I really don’t think the incident rated firing her over. It didn’t rate firing over in the light of the behavior we now condone from congressmen and presidents alike. A local Austin newspaper did an interview with the photographer which is archived here. There is also an Austin Chronicle article about the couple still up on their website. I have anonymized this article in deference to the teacher who should be allowed to get on with her life.