SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

SHOCKED, SHOCKED – FROM THE HILL:    The U.S. media is the least trustworthy in the world, according to a comprehensive new Reuters Institute survey encompassing 46 countries.  Yes, you read that right. The country with among the most resources in this arena – human, technical and otherwise – finished dead last. Finland ranked the highest, with a 65 percent trust rating. In Kenya, the trust rating clocked in at 61 percent.   But here in the U.S.A., the home of global media giants including the New York Times, Washington Post and CNN, we’re trusted by a whopping 29 percent of those reading and watching.  Is anyone really surprised? Because in looking at polls over the past few years (even pre-Donald Trump) we’ve been trending in this dubious direction for some time.    For example, one Axios/Survey Monkey poll in 2019 found that nearly 8-in-10 independent voters said they believed that news organizations report news “they know to be fake, false or purposely misleading.” Ninety-two percent of Republicans felt the same way, as did even a majority of Democrats.   Which means readers and viewers believe that the "mistakes" we so often see, particularly in the political media that dominates the national landscape, are not happening because of human error, which is a convenient excuse offered up from left-leaning "journalists" when "bombshell" reports end up being false, fake or purposely misleading.   In my view, the credibility of the press has been trending downward since the Vietnam War.  I don't think some of the worst institutions, like CNN, can be repaired.  We need new, well-financed news organizations to take their place and restore the traditional idea of a newspaper or TV news outlet – to report the news without fear or favor.

THE POLITICAL VET GETS IT RIGHT – FROM FOX:    House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., said Democrats' use of slogans like "defund the police" is "cutting the throats of the party" in an interview with The New York Times.  Clyburn was responding to a question about his decision to endorse Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Shontel Brown, a moderate Democrat, for Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia Fudge's former Ohio congressional seat over Nina Turner, the progressive frontrunner of the race, who co-chaired Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential run.  "What I try to do is demonstrate by precept and example how we are to proceed as a party," Clyburn told the Times. "When I spoke out against sloganeering, like ‘burn, baby, burn’ in the 1960s and ‘defund the police,' which I think is cutting the throats of the party, I know exactly where my constituents are. They are against that, and I’m against that.  The House majority whip, who has repeatedly voiced concerns against calls to reduce police funding, made similar comments in November when he told Axios that Democrats struggled in the 2020 elections "because we were not able to discipline ourselves according to voter sentiment."  Words of experience, but will the woke crowd listen?

June 30, 2021