And on the Other Hand There are Practices too Shady to be Called Journalism

There have always been dirty tricks in US politics, and publishers who are ready to capitalize on the opportunity to profit on sensationalism. Political hacks posing as journalists are not news either. What Steve Bannon does is not journalism, or even PR, he constructs frauds designed to discredit and destroy agencies that help the poor. Using good people like Juan Carlos Vera from the San Bernadino ACORN office, and Shirley Sherrod as patsies. These fabricated stories attempt to defraud the electorate and the congress in an attempt to change social policy.  Adele M. Stan's AlterNet piece from August 19, 2016, "6 Manufactured News Scandals Produced and Promoted by Breitbart News and New Trump Campaign Chief Bannon: Viral lies destroy lives, and Breitbart and Bannon are masters of this disgusting trade," gives an overview of just what type of 'work' the Bretbart Bannon brand produces.  It would not be hard to imagine Bannon staying up nights thinking of how to close the soup kitchen and blame it on the social workers.

What is frightening is the ascendancy of Steve Bannon and Breitbart News to the West Wing of the White House. Personally I think that those that seek to defraud the government or electorate by  constructing a lie which slanders and scapegoats innocent taxpayers should be in a Federal prison, not have an office at the White House. It's bad enough when beltway insiders like Matt Drdge are able to thrive by spreading rumors and out right lies; we now have an outfit which creates false propaganda and spreads it working inside the White House.


Two other pieces: Zach Tomanelli FAIR blog post of 7/23/10 "Sherrod Hoax Exposed, but Breitbart's ACORN Fraud Lives On," 

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2) George E. Curry's entitled,"Anatomy of a smear campaign: Shirley Sherrod appeared in the St. Louis American" from 8/4/2010, which presents work by Media Matters detailing how Shirley Sherrod's life, and career at USDA were shredded. These 2 pieces focus on the more subtle part of the equation, people like Drudge and outlets like Fox pick up and run this garbage, likely knowing it's false. How do any of these outlets qualify as news services?