Top Trump policy adviser Stephen Miller knows media bias when he sees it.
One example is how reporters write stories and describe political foes. “It’s conservatives being portrayed as ‘reactionary or stubborn’ and liberals being portrayed as ‘progress-driven and noble,'” he said in an interview.
A worse form, which he calls “spotlight bias,” is “where you shine the spotlight and where you don’t.” The overwhelmingly positive coverage of immigrant sanctuary cities is his favorite. “Imagine,” he said, if the media gave “two straight weeks of coverage” to crimes by illegal immigrants protected in the sanctuaries. “I submit that after two weeks, there would be such outrage that Congress would be forced to pass a bill banning sanctuary cities,” he told us.
- This is how to do an Oktoberfest. The U.S. Brewers Association is hosting a craft beer dinner in Germany, at the home of the U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission Robin S. Quinville, Nov. 21. Included are brewers from Boston Beer Co., Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., and Firestone Walker Brewing Co. In the land of fabled German beers, American brews are a hit. An embassy spokeswoman, Tamara Sternberg, said she served Pottsville, Pennsylvania’s, Yuengling at a Christmas party, and “people loved it.”
- Hidden in a Congressional Research Service report on naming ships was this nugget: For the past century, Kansas is the state most ignored by the Navy. “It has been more than 97 years since the decommissioning on Dec. 16, 1921, of the battleship Kansas (BB-21), the most recent ship named for the state,” wrote military expert Ronald O’Rourke.
- It’s no secret that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell didn’t like Ken Cuccinelli when he headed the Senate Conservatives Fund that challenged sitting, moderate GOP senators. But now that he is in line to be nominated as homeland security secretary, “Cooch” hopes that the top senator will consider his success as acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. “The work I’m doing is what I asked to be judged on,” he said.
