'Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal' and 'The Truth vs. Alex Jones' lead nominees for Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary

Happy June and happy Sunday! As I promised yesterday, I'm kicking off the month by examining the nominees for Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary as the Sunday entertainment feature because Alex Jones is as much an entertainment story as he is a legal one.

The American Experience episode "Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal" earned three nominations at the News & Doc Emmy Awards and technically leads The Truth vs. Alex Jones with two nominations, but the situation mirrors the field for Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary because The Truth vs. Alex Jones's other nomination is for Best Documentary, which balances out "Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal" earning nominations for Outstanding Writing – Documentary and Outstanding Direction – Documentary in my handicapping, so both are tied in my book. The other nominees in this category, Cult Massacre: One Day In Jonestown, Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter, and Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer, have only this one nomination.

I'm going through the nominee's trailers in the order above, beginning with POISONED GROUND: THE TRAGEDY AT LOVE CANAL | Trailer | American Experience | PBS.

In the late 1970s, residents of Love Canal, a working-class neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, discovered that their homes, schools and playgrounds were built on top of a former chemical waste dump, which was now leaking toxic substances and wreaking havoc on their health. Through interviews with many of the extraordinary housewives turned activists, the film shows how they effectively challenged those in power, forced America to reckon with the human cost of unregulated industry, and created a grassroots movement that galvanized the landmark Superfund Bill.

POISONED GROUND: THE TRAGEDY AT LOVE CANAL tells the dramatic and inspiring story of the ordinary women who fought against overwhelming odds for the health and safety of their families.

When I first started teaching environmental science, one of the lab exercises was to watch a video about Love Canal and fill out a worksheet. That assignment disappeared the next time I taught the class, but the memory stuck with me. I'm too close to the end of my career and the actual episode is a touch too long to show in class, but I will definitely recommend this to my students for extra credit. Welcome to blogging as professional development.

Next, The Truth vs. Alex Jones | Official Trailer | HBO.

#TheTruthVsAlexJones chronicles the landmark defamation trials brought by Sandy Hook parents against Alex Jones.

Watching that makes me dislike Jones even more than when I gave him an honorary Kenny McCormick Memorial Medal for losing at least five accounts because of abuse. If this documentary wins an Emmy or two, it would make for a bookend to Sandy Hook Promise winning two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Commercial. I'd enjoy that.

I continue with the nominees that have just this one nomination with Cult Massacre: One Day in Jonestown | Official Trailer | Hulu.

Survivors and eyewitnesses tell the immersive story of Jim Jones' idealistic organization's final hours that spiraled into a mass casualty event. Watch Cult Massacre: One Day in Jonestown on Hulu!

Connecting this documentary to 9/11: One Day in America indicates both its pedigree and how this could easily have been a nominee for Outstanding Historical Documentary (same with "Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal"). Doing so would have put it in direct competition with Tsunami: Race Against Time, also by the same team, and I don't think they, Hulu, and National Geographic would have appreciated that. It's better off here, although I'd be surprised if that allows it to win this category.

It seems that no documentary category would be complete without a Netflix nominee, and Into The Fire: The Lost Daughter | Official Trailer | Netflix confirms my feeling.

A mother discovers the daughter she gave up for adoption many years ago has disappeared—and she will stop at nothing to find her. INTO THE FIRE: THE LOST DAUGHTER, directed by Ryan White and produced by Charlize Theron, comes to Netflix September 12.

"[P]roduced by Charlize Theron" — Theron is no stranger to true crime, having won an Oscar for portraying serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster.

The final trailer today is Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer | Official Trailer | Hulu.

To stop serial killers you need to think like one. Follow FBI specialist Dr. Ann Burgess as she explores the minds of notorious murderers in the new series Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer, premiering on July 11.

From award-winning executive producers Dakota and Elle Fanning and critically acclaimed collaborators comes “Mastermind: To Think Like A Killer,” a fascinating new perspective on the woman whose crime hunting innovations changed history. To stop serial killers, psychiatric nurse and professor Dr. Ann Burgess must first learn to think like one. With unprecedented access to the mastermind behind the development of modern serial-killer profiling, the series tells Burgess’ tenacious story and her compassion for victims which puts her at the center of America’s most infamous true-crime cases. From the widely known Ed Kemper and Ted Bundy to lesser-known cases like the Ski Mask Rapist, Burgess investigates and studies the damaged psyches of victims and their attackers, putting two halves of the same story together to catch a killer. Largely an unsung heroine until now, Dr.Burgess impacted not only the FBI, she also radically championed the plight of women in America.

As a fan of the prematurely canceled Mindhunter and run extended on streaming Criminal Minds, I'm glad to see the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Units receiving the documentary treatment they deserve. Also, Dakota Fanning is familiar with historical crime, having played one of the detectives in The Alienist, while her sister Elle, better known for playing Catherine the Great in The Great, also portrayed a defendant in a movie about true crime, The Girl from Plainville. Together, that puts them on the same level as Charlize Theron. Those credentials might have impressed the Television Academy if their documentaries had been nominated at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, but I'm not so sure they will be enough to convince the documentarians and journalists here. As I usually write when I cover awards shows, electorates matter.

Time to recycle what I last wrote in 'The Grab' leads both Outstanding Investigative Documentary and Best Documentary at the News & Doc Emmy Awards.

Now to re-examine the nominees for Best Documentary, which I first covered in 'King Coal' vs. 'Hollywood Black' and 'Madu' for Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary at the News & Doc Emmy Awards.

For the first time in this series, I'm examining the nominees for Best Documentary. I've been holding off because the category has nine nominees this year. The Grab leads with four nominations, followed by American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders and Mammals with three each, Hollywood Black, The Sixth, and The Truth vs. Alex Jones, all with two, and The Commandant's Shadow, Queendom, and The Sing Sing Chronicles with just this one. The Grab and American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders are facing off for Outstanding Investigative Documentary, The Sixth leads the nominees for Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary, The Truth vs. Alex Jones is contending with Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal for Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary, and Mammals leads the rest of the field without a subject area nomination. That's four more opportunities to examine the nominees, after which I'll make my call.

Right now, I have The Grab in first, but I'm not making a final call until I write about the rest of the nominees.

I still think The Grab is first, but I'll change or solidify my choice after I write about Mammals.

Follow over the jump for the craft categories in which Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal earned nominations.

'SNL' parodies prepping Herschel Walker for Tuesday's Senate runoff in its cold open

As I promised twice, I'm posting the highlight's of last night's "Saturday Night Live" episode beginning where the show did, with the Herschel Walker Cold Open.

Republican senators Mitch McConnell (James Austin Johnson), John Cornyn (Mikey Day) and Marsha Blackburn (Cecily Strong) help prepare Herschel Walker (Kenan Thompson) for the Georgia Senate runoff.

Locking Walker in a panic room might just be the best action for helping him win Tuesday's runoff election. However, that isn't going to happen, which is good news for Raphael Warnock. As several commenters at YouTube remarked, as silly as Kenan Thompson's version of Walker was, he still made more sense than the actual Walker. That's because Thompson has writers and, I hope, editors. Walker has neither.

Weekend Update: Kanye West Praises Hitler, Biden Averts Rail Strike covered more headlines from last week's news.

Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like the Senate passing the Respect for Marriage Act.

Ugh, now I have to add the Alex Jones label to this post. Damn you, Kanye!

Weekend Update continued with Thriller's 40th Anniversary, Police Bust Super Cartel.

Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like a giving birth to a baby in a McDonalds.

Observing the 40th anniversary of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" alone made today's entry worthy of being the Sunday entertainment feature. So does Keke Palmer Monologue, which I decided was more my style than the next two segments of Weekend Update.

First-time host Keke Palmer talks about the lessons she's learned from being an actor for 20 years and addresses pregnancy rumors.

Palmer is not an Oscar winner or even a nominee, but she is an Emmy winner and a Saturn Awards and People's Choice Awards nominee for "Nope," which might earn her an Oscar nomination yet. Even if that doesn't happen, don't count her out for future roles. I think Palmer has as bright a future ahead of her as behind her.

Speaking of Palmer and the People's Choice Awards, both will be the subject of tomorrow's planned post about awards shows, so stay tuned.

Kansas votes to uphold abortion rights as seen by Colbert, Meyers, and Noah

I posted a serious examination of Michigan's primary election in No good deed goes unpunished as Meijer loses primary to Gibbs in Michigan yesterday, so today I'm sharing comedic examinations of the rest of Tuesday's primary elections beginning with Stephen Colbert's monologue Kansas Votes To Preserve Abortion Rights | Processed Foods Are Killing Our Brains.

Kansas voters upheld abortion rights by 59% to 41% in yesterday's election, and scientists have really bad news about some of our favorite foods.

I agree with Stephen; Kari Lake sounds incoherent. No wonder The Former Guy endorsed her. For what it's worth, NBC News currently characterizes the contest for the Republican nominee for Arizona Governor as "too close to call" with Lake leading. Go Katie Hobbs, who is the Democratic nominee for Arizona Governor.

Of course, the headline election story is Kansas rejecting a proposed amendment removing the right to an abortion from the Kansas constitution. Seth Meyers had more to say about that and other primary election news in Kansas Voters Back Abortion Rights; Trump Endorses "Eric" in Missouri: A Closer Look.

Seth takes a closer look at voters in Kansas overwhelmingly rejecting a state ballot measure that would have restricted abortion access and Trump endorsing multiple dudes named "Eric" in the same Missouri Senate race.

The GOP dirty tricks both Seth and Stephen described didn't work and a good thing, too. Here's to the measure protecting abortion passing in Michigan this November. Also, I knew there had to be an Eric Trump joke in there, and there was, even if I had to wait until the very end to hear it.

BTW, welcome back from quarantine for Seth and congratulations on his shows' three Emmy nominations for Outstanding Variety Talk Series, Outstanding Short Form Comedy, Drama or Variety Series, and Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series. To celebrate, I'm sharing the Twitter images promoting the show nominations.


Good luck, although I think John Oliver, James Corden, and "Saturday Night Live" will win these categories instead.

I close with Trevor Noah's take on the election results and other news, Kansas Votes Pro-Choice, Alex Jones Caught in Lie & Beyoncé Tweaks Album Again | The Daily Show.

Kansas votes to uphold the right to have an abortion, Alex Jones' attorney accidentally gives his texts to the prosecutor, Beyoncé tweaks her album again, Brad Pitt wears a skirt to his latest movie premiere, and Airbnb will no longer rent out slave quarters.

Last night's results reinforce what I first wrote in Colbert and Meyers take closer looks at replacing Liz Cheney and Arizona audit and repeated yesterday, "'this fight is not over conventional ideas of left and right. Instead, it is about loyalty to Trump, which is odd considering that major American political parties generally move away from losing presidential candidates. Not now — the GOP is sticking closer to Trump than ever.' That has become even more true since then." Worse yet, if TFG's endorse nominees win, a lot of them will be in charge of certifying elections. Who needs an armed insurrection when the coup will happen through legal means?

Speaking of legal means, LOL, Alex Jones. I might have more to say about his trial later. Stay tuned.

Colbert and Kimmel make fun of the news after coming back from break

I've been taking a very serious view of the news lately, with the funniest post this month so far being John Oliver and NPR explain the Sackler family/Purdue Pharma opioid settlement and that was still about a pretty grim subject. In large part, that was because two of my favorite late-night comedians, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel, were on vacation. Both returned from their breaks last night and both had funny if pointed things to say about what happened while they were gone. I begin with Colbert asking Hurricanes, Reproductive Rights, Ivermectin: Did Anything Happen During Our Break?

Stephen returns from hiatus wearing something he's calling a "mustache," and uses his monologue to get caught up on all the major news that happened during Late Show's hiatus. Did you hear about that talking duck?

Yes, a lot happened while Stephen grew his mustache — hurricanes, Afghanistan, Texas effectively outlawing nearly all abortions, and of course, the pandemic. Stephen's line that what once felt like the End Times have just become the times reminded me that my wife remarked after looking at the news over the weekend that it feels like it's one apocalyptic event after another. My response was that the pandemic alone isn't the Apocalypse, but it is an apocalypse. The same with all the rest of the calamatous events this summer.

In his return to the studio, Jimmy Kimmel is BACK and Very Much ALIVE, Jimmy K. expressed his disappointment that the health situation hadn't returned to the pre-pandemic normal. I have news for him; that isn't going to happen.

Jimmy returns to the show after his summer off and addresses the many comments of concern for his well-being, being apart from Guillermo, our new set, the number of new COVID cases being up 300% from a year ago, people taking livestock medicine to fight the Coronavirus and internet lunatic Alex Jones giving it a big endorsement, Dr. Jill Biden returning to the classroom, Jeff Bezos investing in a company that intends to reverse the human aging process, and Jimmy thanks the many talented people that filled in for him this summer and shares a video of their fondest memories from hosting.

LOL, Alex Jones. That clip showed him as even more unhinged than I remember and reminded me that "the voices in Alex Jones' head are not reliable sources." I hope my readers have all learned that by now. I hope my readers have also learned what actually works: "Mask up, keep socially distant, and wash your hands. Those will work against both COVID-19 and the flu. Stay safe and healthy, everyone!"

CNN reports on Trump consulting Twitter for policy advice

Happy Flashback Friday!  I'm taking advantage of my planned examination of how well my posts played out on Twitter to share CNN's clip Trump stopped meeting to consult Twitter account, report says.  I'm not the only one checking Twitter to see how popular my tweets are!

CNN's Brian Todd looks into President Donald Trump's reliance on Twitter for his understanding of the world and how that affects his decisions in office.

I've written before about Trump's tweets, most recently in The Academy Awards got political without mentioning Trump, a recycled comment and before that in Noah, Colbert, and Kimmel find the humor in the polar vortex and Trump's 'Global Waming' (sic) tweet.  However, I think this is the first time I've written about Trump actually paying attention to what is written back to him by his supporters.  The good news is that he pays attention to the opinions of others.  The bad news is that he is not listening to the experts and is vulnerable to conspiracy theories, including those spread by Alex Jones.  At least Jones has been banned from Twitter.

Follow over the jump for last year's top posts on Twitter.*

Wonkette reacts to its Media Bias Chart placement, an update to 'A comparison of two measures of media bias shows readers and viewers respond to both ideology and quality'

I left off this series by telling my readers "I plan on resuming this series on April 4th with a retrospective about the most read entries covering media bias."  That's today, so it's time to fulfill my promise by updating A comparison of two measures of media bias shows readers and viewers respond to both ideology and quality, the third most read entry during the eighth year of the blog.

Of all the stories I could have used to follow up on this entry, which was the last one to enter the all-time top ten, the rating of Wonkette is by far the funniest.  Ad Fontes Media, which produces the Media Bias Chart, placed Wonkette on the chart in September 2018, one month after I posted the entry.  Wonkette was not pleased and had pointed things to say about its placement.

Here at Wonkette, we often make #jokes in our headlines and say things that are not literally true for humor purposes, and when we do that it's pretty fucking spelled out, honestly. For instance, when we wrote that Pat Robertson beat up Hurricane Florence with his Bible and now Hurricane Florence is dead, we do not expect Ms. Otero to literally believe the hurricane is gone because Robertson beat it up!

Shorter Wonkette: Ad Fontes Media has no sense of humor.  I've seen that before.


I'm not sure how Wonkette would react to being called a bunch of evil clowns.  They would probably agree about the clown part, but maybe not the evil, although it would depend on the writer.  I'm sure some of them would take it as a badge of honor.

Back to Wonkette's reaction.

Wonkette is not to the left of Jacobin. In fact, Jacobin would probably tell you that their own selves, verrrrry self-righteously. We are also not to the left of The Intercept.
...
I would agree we are 'nonsense damaging to discourse' but we're HYPERPARTISAN LEFT not EXTREME LEFT and we do NOT BELONG IN MISLEADING, we belong in EXTREME/UNFAIR INTERPRETATION OF THE NEWS.

In other words, "Yeah, we're biased, but not that biased!"  According to their own view of their site, it belongs on that chart next to Daily Kos, not where it is the the left of Jacobin (I agree, that's silly) and just above Patribotics (that's insulting).

Ad Fontes Media responded to Wonkette's reaction.

The main reasons for Wonkette’s low quality placement are that in our ranking methodology, highly unfair characterizations of political opponents, such as ad hominem attacks, name calling, and foul language result in low scores for quality and high scores for bias—even if it’s for humor.

I see they object to this. I am not calling them “fake news.” That term is not on the chart. Note that the category they are in for quality is “propaganda/ contains misleading info,” which is an “and/or” category. That is, the category is propaganda OR misleading. My ranking categorized them as “propaganda” because its articles get such high scores in the “unfairness instances” metric on the article grading rubric. Propaganda is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.” Many Wonkette headlines are also misleading—for example, though the headline says otherwise, the chart does not say it is “fake news,” and, it is ranked meaningfully higher than Louise Mensch’s blog, Patribotics. However, Wonkette’s articles can be categorized more often as “propaganda” than “misleading.”

That was Ad Fontes Media's justification of its placement of Wonkette.  What about Wonkette's defense that it's all a joke?

“It’s funny/it’s just a joke/it’s “clever snark”

This is true. Their writing is hilarious, especially as viewed through the lens of other liberal, internet savvy, politically astute readers who love a sick burn. However, things that are funny can also be unfair at the same time. So insults, ad hominem attacks, curse words, and name calling, WHILE VERY FUNNY, are still unfair means of persuasion. We categorize several rhetorical devices and statements as unfair in our rankings. A general guideline for what counts as “unfair” are 1) practices not in accordance with journalism ethics and writing style guides and 2) types of information that would not be admissible in court according to rules of evidence. I’ve written more on the “unfairness instances” metric in this previous post.

You may not be convinced that funny insults make a source low quality (just merely biased, you may concede), especially if you like and agree with them. If you like Wonkette and the names it calls Republicans and Trump, consider what you would think of the quality of a source on the right if it regularly called Hillary Clinton a bitch or a hag or worse. Also consider what moderate or slightly conservative readers would think of the quality of Wonkette’s stories in terms of how persuasive they are to them.

Ad Fontes Media then goes on from Wonkette to all kinds of political humor.

I admit it was my subjective decision to have that underlying premise, but I submit that this type of content only serves to reinforce one’s existing beliefs and alienate the other side, and is therefore, highly polarizing. There are certainly lots of sources that do this: for example, John Oliver, Bill Maher, and other evening comedy shows also use pretty cruel humor. There is an audience for it because it is cathartic. There is an important place in our discourse and democracy for humor—we need to have the freedom to be able to make fun of our leaders. But to the extent people rely on it for 1) news ( i.e., fact reporting) and 2) takes on the news (i.e., analysis/opinion), I think that kind of content  is highly polarizing, and thus, extremely damaging.

As support for the proposition that it is damaging, I point to the state of our country’s current discourse and the resulting election of our current president.

I’m not saying these sources have no merit. Humor has purpose. I watch these shows. I’ve read lots on Wonkette. But to the extent people rely on these for news, I argue they should not rely on them, and to the extent these sources try to fill the space where news is, they do damage.

That's a sobering thought.  It won't stop me from using John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Trevor Noah, or Samantha Bee to comment on the news, but I will be more cautious about doing so when I could use a more serious news source.

Follow over the jump for how this entry gained its page views, along with a story about how entertainment media shapes our biases as well plus the first appearance of the Media Bias Chart on this blog.

Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah respond to Alex Jones removal from social media

Just as Late night comedians on Space Force for Presidential Joke Day followed Pence on Space Force, late night comedians responded to Alex Jones removed from Facebook, Apple, YouTube, and Spotify.  The one who played it the straightest was Trevor Noah, who reported on Venezuela’s Assassination Scare & Alex Jones’s Media Exile for "The Daily Show."

A drone attack targets the Venezuelan president, Osama bin Laden’s son marries the daughter of a 9/11 hijacker, and major tech companies ban Alex Jones from their platforms.

"Media exile" — that's a good way to put it.

Noah is hardly Jones' biggest nemesis among late night comedians.  That title belongs to Stephen Colbert, who has mocked Alex Jones repeatedly as "Tuck Buckford."  Of course Colbert returned as the character, proclaiming Tuck Buckford Will Not Be Silenced.

Conspiracy radio broadcaster Tuck Buckford expresses outrage over Silicon Valley's decision to remove his show 'Brain Fight' from mainstream platforms.

Yes, Jones has been removed from Pinterest.  According to Tech Crunch, he's also been removed from Stitcher (a podcast app), YouPorn (hahahaha, he's banned from a porn site), LinkedIn (so much for professional networking), MailChimp (so much for his email), and Vimeo (what passes for a rival to YouTube tossed him, too) in addition to Facebook, Apple, YouTube, and Spotify.  That's ten platforms and even more accounts.

That would qualify Jones for an award that I gave out sparingly when I was trolling the men's rights movement and Art Bell fans on Usenet, Kenny McCormick Memorial Medal, named after the "South Park" character who dies over and over, only to return the next episode.  To qualify for that award, a candidate had to lose five accounts for abuse.  That almost never happened; I think I ran elections for that maybe twice over a three year period, when I ran elections every month.  In one week, Jones has qualified for the award twice over.  I may no longer be the Friendly Neighborhood Vote Wrangler, but I still think Jones deserves the medal, so here is an image to honor Jones' dubious achievement.


Congratulations!  May Jones' accounts not be like Kenny, returning from the dead at the start of the next episode.

Alex Jones removed from Facebook, Apple, YouTube, and Spotify, prompting free speech concerns

Regular readers of this blog should know that I am no fan of Alex Jones.  When I first mentioned him on this blog, I called him a "tinfoil hat wearer" and later wrote "Here's to everyone, including Trump, learning that the voices in Alex Jones' head are not reliable sources."  So it should come as no surprise  that I reservedly welcome the news that Alex Jones and Infowars have been removed at least temporarily from Apple, Facebook, Spotify, and YouTube.  I begin with CBS Los Angeles reporting on the story.

Facebook took down the Alex Jones Channel Page, the Alex Jones Page, the Infowars Page and the Infowars Nightly News Page after some users complained about the content last week.

I did say my support was reserved.  That's because the restriction on speech on social media imposed on Jones could expand to affect me and people who agree with me.  I'm not alone in thinking that.  CNN's Oliver Darcy expressed those sentiments, too.

YouTube, Facebook and Apple have taken steps to remove content associated with InfoWars and its founder Alex Jones.

Despite my reservations, I think these actions are generally beneficial, as the Media Bias Chart describes InfoWars as "utter garbage/conspiracy theories" and "nonsense damaging to public discourse."   I agree with both descriptions.


Finally, I can't resist having some fun with this news.  The time I wrote about a notorious media figure who promoted conspiracy theories in R.I.P. Art Bell, I dedicated a song by Muse to his fans along with my mixed opinion of the band.

On the one hand, they're brilliant musicians.  On the other, they're complete tinfoil-hat wearing kooks.  Here is a song about a notorious conspiracy theory, MK Ultra, which is about CIA mind control....The next time I post this, it will likely be the UCLA Band version.  I can never get too far away from movies or marching band with my music.

Since Jones is such a major figure, I'm not just sharing one song, I'm sharing an entire show: 2010 - UCLA vs USC Halftime "The Muse Show" 12/4/10.  "MK Ultra" begins the show.

"Mk Ultra" "United States of Eurasia" "Resistance" "Knights of Cydonia"

I wish to thank Alex Jones for giving me an opportunity to feature the UCLA Band, which I marched in 40 years ago.  It shows that no one is completely useless.

It's Father's Day, so here's Stephen Colbert mocking Alex Jones over his custody battle

Happy Father's Day!  Yesterday, I told my readers to "Stay tuned for a special Father's Day entry for Entertainment Sunday."  Today, I'm paying tribute to a special father, Alex Jones, who will be featured on Megyn Kelly's show tonight.  It so happens that Jones' ex-wife sued him for custody of their children in April, saying of him, “He’s not a stable person.”  That gave Stephen Colbert an opening to lampoon Jones, beginning with InfoWar's Alex Jones Has Nothing On Tuck Buckford.

Stephen opens the vault for an old clip from 'Brain Fight with Tuck Buckford,' the show that likely inspired fellow performance artist Alex Jones.

That's not all.  Follow over the jump for four more times Colbert mocked Jones and his legal issues as "Tuck Buckford."

Trump's wiretapping claim shows his vulnerability to conspiracy theories

The latest installment in Trump and Putin's Bad Bromance came Saturday, when he claimied, without evidence, that Obama wiretapped him.  He followed that up by asking Congress to investigate Obama over wiretap that his White House refuses to provide evidence for.  That didn't completely get people's minds off the Trump campaign's relationship to Russia, but it did suck up all the oxygen on the Sunday talk shows.  I offer CNN's Rogers: Trump is feeding 'conspiracy meter' as an example of the range of reaction, most of which did not support Trump.

Jake Tapper dissects this week in politics with our State of the Union panel Rep. Mike Rogers, Jennifer Granholm, Dana Loesch, and Bakari Sellers.

First, Jennifer Granholm and Mike Rogers -- Michigan represent!  Second, that list that Bakari Sellers ran through works very well as Trump's greatest conspiracy theory hits.  This is not a new feature of Trump's.  It was noted more than a year ago in The Federalist's Military Strategist Explains Why Donald Trump Leads—And How He Will Fail.

While he’s very shrewd and swift in observing, orienting, deciding, and acting when he’s on familiar terrain, Trump draws information from a fairly closed loop.
...
The way Trump has dealt with facts in his public statements is a tipoff. Political speech routinely incorporates assertions of fact that range from debatable to unverifiable to provably false, and sometimes this is a sign of shrewd cynicism rather than self-deception.

But Trump has repeatedly made statements that he and his team had clearly made no effort to verify in advance, drawn from sources whose credibility should have been huge red flags, even though they were outside the common cultural and media conventional wisdom and therefore likely to be challenged.
...
Trump has repeatedly made statements that he and his team had clearly made no effort to verify in advance, drawn from sources whose credibility should have been huge red flags.

The recent dustup over Trump’s claim—which was, at best, severely exaggerated—that he had seen video of thousands of Muslims celebrating 9/11 in Jersey City is a classic example of this. So is the fact that Trump cites Infowars reporting in campaign speeches based solely on having clicked a link on the Drudge Report, and has gone on Alex Jones’ conspiracy-theory-soaked show to trade praise with Jones.

When I first mentioned Alex Jones on this blog, I called him a "tinfoil hat wearer."  I still think so.  So, apparently, does Stephen Colbert.  Watch Infowars' Alex Jones Is Trump's CAPS LOCK Advisor.

Trump's new confidant is a right-wing conspiracy theorist whose rants are best enjoyed on mute.

New?  Trump has been listening to Jones for years.  Still, I'm glad the mainstream media has found the Trump-Jones connection worth examining.  That's the good news.  Here's the bad news.


Here's to everyone, including Trump, learning that the voices in Alex Jones' head are not reliable sources.

Syrian Electronic Army takes credit for hacking AP's Twitter account

This has been a weird news day.

On the way out the door from from work, I noticed that there had been a flash crash of all three U.S. stock indices.  Joe.My.God captured the 140+ point drop in the Dow shown below.


I was afraid it was a computer trading glitch like the 2010 Flash Crash, but it turned out that it was the traders responding to a tweet from the hacked AP account, as CNN reported.

The shocking tweet came from the Associated Press earlier this afternoon: "Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured."

The AP's communications team quickly tweeted from its own account that the main AP Twitter was compromised, but investors had already panicked. The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) immediately plunged by more than 140 points.

And there it is: After years of hacks that typically involved little more than obscene language, Twitter's subpar security measures have now caused serious real-world consequences.

Tech Feed then reported that the Syrian Electronic Army, a
"cybermilitia" (actually a bunch of hackers and script kiddies) loyal to the Assad government took credit.  Here is their video report: Who Hacked the AP Twitter Account?

This morning a tweet was sent from the official Associated Press account that read, "Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured." Although the tweet was bogus (the account had been hacked), it had a very noticeable effect on the stock market, as Annie explains. She also takes a look at the Syrian Electronic Army, who have taken credit for the hack.

The Syrians?  Really?  I'd never have guessed.

When I came home, two other stories relating to last week's  terror attacks awaited me.

First, Nebris had this gem on his Facebook wall: Former GOP Candidate Reacts After Man He Allegedly Framed For Ricin Poisoning Is Released.  Elvis has left the building just as the rabbit hole was revealed to be even deeper.

Second, another Facebook friend shared Salon's report that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was an Alex Jones fan.  Jones immediately claimed that the news was evidence of a plot against him.

UPDATE: Sure enough, within minutes of the AP story breaking, Jones told BuzzFeed’s Rosie Gray that it’s all a conspiracy against him:

“I’ve seen this before,” Jones said. “The federal government trying to connect me to tragedies. That’s the media and the government’s own conspiracy theories.” Jones compared the situation to when Richard Andrew Poplawski, a Pittsburgh man who killed three police officers in 2009, was shown to be a conspiracy theorist who frequently visited the Infowars website. “It’s standard for them to talk to people, go through computers, and any time someone’s done something bad they connect it to us,” Jone[s] said.

Shorter Jones, courtesy of Ambassador Vreenak.


And so we come full circle, starting with a fake AP story and ending with claims of another fake AP story.   Jones' protests to the contrary, I think that final AP story is real, although I'm motivated to do so.  After all, it means that the U.S. Right now has to disclaim Tsarnaev, as the Infowars association makes him one of them.  Excuse me while I suppress a wicked snicker.