I’ve Been Had—and I’m Mad!

 

My friends here on Ricochet tried to warn me. They coaxed, cajoled, and reprimanded my decision to rely on the media. And I mostly argued with them. Today The Federalist published an article by Mollie Hemingway, a woman I admire and hold in the greatest esteem when it comes to journalism. And she proceeded to tell me that I’d been had—and my friends were right: a fight between Gov. Ron DeSantis and President Donald Trump is a hoax.

How did I get taken in so easily? For one, I’ve often said that I admire much of the work that Donald Trump accomplished, but I just didn’t like him. I insisted that his demeanor and tweets were unacceptable and were unhelpful. (I still believe that to be true.) But the mainstream media baited me with distortions and lies, knowing that I and others like me look for reasons to discount Donald Trump—and they were successful.

So what have I learned from this episode? For one, I will need to question any writing by the MSM. I hate having to do that. I knew they were out for Trump, hated him, would criticize him, and simply make up lies. But how far could they possibly go?

Apparently as far as they choose to go. And that’s pretty far.

I’m a person who likes to give the benefit of the doubt. I also pride myself on accepting people with whom I disagree into my circle. I suspect, however, that pride has gotten in my way.

I’m embarrassed. I’m disappointed in myself. But I write this post to everyone as a warning. No matter how much you dislike Donald Trump—no matter how much you dislike any politician—you need to factor those emotions into your judgment of anything that is published. We have to take responsibility for our decisions, for the information we share with others, and for the positions we take. That discernment might even serve us well in other areas. As @franco, @drewinwisconsin, @edg, and @flicker stated in my previous post, discernment is a valuable and honorable skill; we can use it to make judgments not only about our government, but about the relationships we build, the positions we take in our communities, and the decisions we make.

For the foreseeable future, I am going to focus on building my discernment muscles when it comes to the media. I will work hard not to let my emotions overrule my own wisdom and common sense. I will listen to my friends when they caution me about my writing. I will try to be a productive citizen. And as much as I dislike having to do it, I will make it a practice to question just about everything from the media, especially those who likely have motives to destroy not only the people we support, but ultimately the country. I hope you will join me in this effort.

We have a country to save.

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  1. Postmodern Hoplite Coolidge
    Postmodern Hoplite
    @PostmodernHoplite

    My compliments, @susanquinn. It is never easy to admit fault, no matter how sincerely or honestly one makes them. I just finished reading your earlier post on the Main Page, and I recommend this one for promotion, too. Everyone who has seen and commented on the prior piece ought to have the opportunity to read, reply to this one.

    • #1
  2. Nohaaj Coolidge
    Nohaaj
    @Nohaaj

    Susan Quinn: discernment is a valuable and honorable skill

    the majority of the world apparently agrees. 

    The survey found that 67 percent of people globally are “convinced” they are being “purposely” misled by journalists and reporters, which is up eight percent from 2021.”

     

    • #2
  3. Columbo Inactive
    Columbo
    @Columbo

    • #3
  4. Columbo Inactive
    Columbo
    @Columbo

    Bravo @susanquinn! We do have a country to save! 

    • #4
  5. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    Susan, I have never thought you were on the wrong side! 

     

    • #5
  6. Columbo Inactive
    Columbo
    @Columbo

    Columbo (View Comment):

    Bravo @ susanquinn! We do have a country to save!

    • #6
  7. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Susan, I have never thought you were on the wrong side!

     

    Thanks, Bryan. But I can be misguided!

    • #7
  8. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Columbo (View Comment):

    I just received my copy in the mail yesterday.

    Edit: No, that’s not right. I’ve had that e-book for some time. Yesterday I received Cost: Trump, China, and American Revival by Maria Bartiromo and James Freeman. I probably learned about it from someone here on Ricochet.

    • #8
  9. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    @susanquinn I usually like and follow your posts but I didn’t that one because the topic just didn’t feel right to me. I feel better now on the topic itself and I really admire your comeback. 

    • #9
  10. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Columbo (View Comment):

    Read it. It sometimes takes a two-by-four to get through to me. I guess there wasn’t enough on the media. (That’s my excuse and I’m stickin’ to it!)

    • #10
  11. DrewInWisconsin, Oaf Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Oaf
    @DrewInWisconsin

    You’re doin’ great, Susan. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Turn your anger on the media.

    I just wish more people would understand just how much the media lies about Trump, Republicans, conservatives in general. Some here on Ricochet still seem to think that CNN/Washington Post/New York Times/MSNBC are valid sources of truth. That they also insult Mollie as a “Trump cultist” only makes me loathe them more than I already do.

     

    • #11
  12. Hans Gruber Pfizer President Inactive
    Hans Gruber Pfizer President
    @Pseudodionysius

    This makes my previous post the highest reward, lowest effort post in the history of the internet.

    • #12
  13. Hans Gruber Pfizer President Inactive
    Hans Gruber Pfizer President
    @Pseudodionysius

    Hans Gruber Pfizer President (View Comment):

    This makes my previous post the highest reward, lowest effort post in the history of the internet.

    Which likely means I will either be run over by a bus, shot by a blind man or hit by a fluke falling jet aircraft from the sky today. Oh, well, its been a slice. I just hope I don’t fall out of a skyscraper again as that last one kept me off work for quite awhile. I almost stole Michael Douglas’s role in Falling Down.

    • #13
  14. Columbo Inactive
    Columbo
    @Columbo

    Democrats! Democrats! They’re everywhere!

    • #14
  15. Columbo Inactive
    Columbo
    @Columbo

    Hans Gruber Pfizer President (View Comment):

    Hans Gruber Pfizer President (View Comment):

    This makes my previous post the highest reward, lowest effort post in the history of the internet.

    Which likely means I will either be run over by a bus, shot by a blind man or hit by a fluke falling jet aircraft from the sky today. Oh, well, its been a slice. I just hope I don’t fall out of a skyscraper again as that last one kept me off work for quite awhile. I almost stole Michael Douglas’s role in Falling Down.

    See you on the other side Pseud!

    • #15
  16. WI Con Member
    WI Con
    @WICon

    Your Mea Culpa is very generous @susanquinn (I still believe the story but also don’t doubt the Media’s exploiting for maximum damage to our side). A feud between the two would also help the Dems in the upcoming FL Governor’s race, compounding the damage. 

    After seeing how Mitch and the GOPe coopted the Tea Party, I could see “Conservative Inc.” media doing their bidding. Seriously, from what we’ve seen & heard from McCarthy and McConnell so far – what do you perceive as the House & Senate agendas if the GOP takes over? While I’m pretty confident they’ll prevent the worst of what Biden & Co. have planned (and can veto) but will we see an actual budget? Reduction in spending? Elimination of any Departments? 

    • #16
  17. Rodin Member
    Rodin
    @Rodin

    Never fear overestimating the mendacity of the MSM when it comes to Trump. 

    • #17
  18. Tyrion Lannister Inactive
    Tyrion Lannister
    @TyrionLannister

    The rule I have: if it comes from the dominant liberal establishment mass media (DLEMM) I don’t believe it unless I can corroborate it somewhere from the right.  The assumption should be that they are lying, or incorrect, or both.  Am I blind?  No- I’m cautious.  By my estimation the DLEMM have lost all credibility and believability and will have to earn it back (even though none of them are trying, so it will never happen).  

    • #18
  19. Unsk Member
    Unsk
    @Unsk

    These times are very perilous. It is so easy to be taken in by the lies of the media, the Democrats  and the Never Trump Corporatists who are working overtime to destroy this country. It is very gracious and magnanimous of you to admit you were taken in by their lies. 

    BTW, I also would prefer DeSantis to Trump in 2024, but this phony feud is just nonsense and does nothing to further the cause of freedom and the righting of this nation’s ship. 

    • #19
  20. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    WI Con (View Comment):
    Seriously, from what we’ve seen & heard from McCarthy and McConnell so far – what do you perceive as the House & Senate agendas if the GOP takes over? While I’m pretty confident they’ll prevent the worst of what Biden & Co. have planned (and can veto) but will we see an actual budget? Reduction in spending? Elimination of any Departments? 

    I’m wondering the same thing. If they don’t hit the ground running with some powerful changes, I’m am going to be VERY ANGRY. So they better get their act together!

    • #20
  21. DrewInWisconsin, Oaf Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Oaf
    @DrewInWisconsin

    WI Con (View Comment):
    Seriously, from what we’ve seen & heard from McCarthy and McConnell so far – what do you perceive as the House & Senate agendas if the GOP takes over?

    Uh, . . . tax cuts for corporations, and . . . uh . . . lots of spending . . . and, . . . nah, I think that’s it.

    • #21
  22. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    Rodin (View Comment):

    Never fear overestimating the mendacity of the MSM when it comes to Trump.

    Two things I’ll say here. Trump specifically really pushes these Libs to the limit, just the idea and knowledge of him in their minds. And for all of us who see things we don’t relish in Trump’s behavior at times, my sense is that these things are almost always very surface, not to be confused with his more deeply seated ideas about America and what it means to be an American. Stay alert.

    • #22
  23. Jim McConnell Member
    Jim McConnell
    @JimMcConnell

    We will seldom go astray by following President Reagan’s maxim: “Trust, but verify.”

    • #23
  24. Hammer, The (Ryan M) Inactive
    Hammer, The (Ryan M)
    @RyanM

    Whether the fight between Trump and DeSantis is or is not a hoax is somewhat irrelevant to the points you made in your most recent post about that topic.  I believe what you said was that Trump needs to settle into his role as a former president, rather than campaigning for another run in 2024, and you were absolutely correct about that. 

    • #24
  25. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Hammer, The (Ryan M) (View Comment):

    Whether the fight between Trump and DeSantis is or is not a hoax is somewhat irrelevant to the points you made in your most recent post about that topic. I believe what you said was that Trump needs to settle into his role as a former president, rather than campaigning for another run in 2024, and you were absolutely correct about that.

    That’s also true, but I started out writing about his comments regarding DeSantis. If it wasn’t clear, that was actually my main point, but I appreciate your comment, Ryan.

    • #25
  26. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    Hammer, The (Ryan M) (View Comment):

    Whether the fight between Trump and DeSantis is or is not a hoax is somewhat irrelevant to the points you made in your most recent post about that topic. I believe what you said was that Trump needs to settle into his role as a former president, rather than campaigning for another run in 2024, and you were absolutely correct about that.

    I think things could work very well if Trump did that. 

    • #26
  27. Instugator Thatcher
    Instugator
    @Instugator

    No worries Susan.

    Let me introduce you to the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect – as quoted by novelist Michael Chrichton.

    In a speech in 2002, Crichton coined the term Gell-Mann amnesia effect, after physicist Murray Gell-Mann. He used this term to describe the phenomenon of experts believing news articles on topics outside of their fields of expertise, even after acknowledging that articles written in the same publication that are within the experts’ fields of expertise are error-ridden and full of misunderstanding:[140][excessive quote]

    Media carries with it a credibility that is totally undeserved. You have all experienced this, in what I call the Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. (I refer to it by this name because I once discussed it with Murray Gell-Mann, and by dropping a famous name I imply greater importance to myself, and to the effect, than it would otherwise have.)

    Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them.

    In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.

    That is the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. I’d point out it does not operate in other arenas of life. In ordinary life, if somebody consistently exaggerates or lies to you, you soon discount everything they say. In court, there is the legal doctrine of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, which means untruthful in one part, untruthful in all. But when it comes to the media, we believe against evidence that it is probably worth our time to read other parts of the paper. When, in fact, it almost certainly isn’t. The only possible explanation for our behavior is amnesia.

    • #27
  28. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Instugator (View Comment):

    No worries Susan.

    Let me introduce you to the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect – as quoted by novelist Michael Chrichton.

    In a speech in 2002, Crichton coined the term Gell-Mann amnesia effect, after physicist Murray Gell-Mann. He used this term to describe the phenomenon of experts believing news articles on topics outside of their fields of expertise, even after acknowledging that articles written in the same publication that are within the experts’ fields of expertise are error-ridden and full of misunderstanding:[140][excessive quote]

    Media carries with it a credibility that is totally undeserved. You have all experienced this, in what I call the Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. (I refer to it by this name because I once discussed it with Murray Gell-Mann, and by dropping a famous name I imply greater importance to myself, and to the effect, than it would otherwise have.)

    Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them.

    In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.

    That is the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. I’d point out it does not operate in other arenas of life. In ordinary life, if somebody consistently exaggerates or lies to you, you soon discount everything they say. In court, there is the legal doctrine of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, which means untruthful in one part, untruthful in all. But when it comes to the media, we believe against evidence that it is probably worth our time to read other parts of the paper. When, in fact, it almost certainly isn’t. The only possible explanation for our behavior is amnesia.

    Brilliant! Now I don’t feel quite so bad! Thanks, Instugator.

    • #28
  29. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    First conversation with my wife when I got up this morning (1 hour ago).

    Me: I think I was rude to Susan Quinn.
    Wife: Oh, and you like her so much.
    Me: As God as my witness, I though she liked Donald Trump.

    My take away from all this is that you were remarkably reserved in your criticism of him — for years — if you actually hate him.

    That shows great character.

    • #29
  30. BastiatJunior Member
    BastiatJunior
    @BastiatJunior

    I think we are all out of practice.  During the Trump administration, a new damaging story about Trump would come out every few days.  We learned that whenever such a story comes out, just wait a few days and it will be thoroughly debunked.

    With Trump out of office for a year, those stories are much less frequent.  That may have caused us to lower our guard a bit.

    • #30
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