{"id":325765,"date":"2017-09-13T01:15:31","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T00:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/cnn-celebrates-joy-of-mccain-a-day-after-his-genocidal-threat\/"},"modified":"2017-09-13T01:15:31","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T00:15:31","slug":"cnn-celebrates-joy-of-mccain-a-day-after-his-genocidal-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/cnn-celebrates-joy-of-mccain-a-day-after-his-genocidal-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"CNN Celebrates \u2018Joy\u2019 of McCain a Day After His Genocidal Threat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Professional truth-teller<\/a> and self-appointed<\/a> Russian counter-propagandist Jake Tapper had Arizona Sen. John McCain on his State of Union<\/b> show (CNN<\/b>, 9\/10\/17<\/a>) for a chummy interview Sunday night. The interview began with Tapper lobbing softballs at McCain about his mortality and reminiscing about buddying up on the 2000 campaign trail (Tapper was, according to his then-editor<\/a> David Talbot, a McCain \u201cgroupie\u201d) before moving on to \u201cissues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"State<\/a><\/p>\n

Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.), during a CNN<\/strong> interview (State of the Union<\/strong>, 9\/10\/17<\/a>) in which he seemed to threaten to exterminate 25 million people.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

After letting McCain claim that the US ushered in, after World War II, the \u201clongest period of peace and prosperity\u201d in history (what, one is compelled to ask, was McCain dropping on Vietnamese peasants, Ovaltine?), Tapper let the Republican lawmaker pivot to his default position of warmonger (“We have got to spend more money on defense<\/a>“), with no pushback of any kind.<\/p>\n

The ritual was kicked off with a distortion by McCain that Tapper didn\u2019t challenge. \u201cThe Korean defense minister, just a few days ago, called for nuclear weapons to be redeployed\u2014we had them there once\u2014in South Korea,\u201d McCain said. \u201cYou think the US should do that?\u201d Tapper asked, when what he ought to have said was, \u201cThat\u2019s a mischaracterization of the defense minister\u2019s comment.\u201d What Korea\u2019s Song Young-moo actually said, according to the Washington Post <\/b>(9\/4\/17<\/a>), was that \u201cthe redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons is an alternative worth a full review.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the crusader against Fake News can\u2019t be bothered with messy details that complicate McCain\u2019s regime-change advocacy. Also left unmentioned was that the weapon systems McCain touts, like the THAAD anti-missile system, are opposed by the majority of South Koreans<\/a>, and the current president was elected with a mandate to halt THAAD\u2014which he promptly did<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"State<\/a><\/p>\n

The question Jake Tapper didn’t ask: “What do you mean by ‘extinction,’ senator?’<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

But the real lowlight of the interview was the casual genocidal threat by McCain: \u201cIf Kim Jung Un acts in an aggressive fashion,\u201d he told Tapper, \u201cthe price will be extinction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Note that McCain didn\u2019t even say \u201cif North Korea attacks the US,\u201d but simply if it \u201cacts in an aggressive fashion.\u201d What constitutes an \u201caggressive fashion\u201d? More importantly, what does McCain mean by \u201cextinction\u201d? As McCain seems to be threatening to kill 25 million Koreans, isn\u2019t it worth clarifying what precisely he\u2019s calling for?<\/p>\n

Tapper did no such thing; he simply moved on to DACA. And just like that, a distorted pro\u2013regime change narrative is cemented, without so much as a hiccup from \u201cthe most trusted name in news.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CNN:<\/a><\/p>\n

What struck CNN<\/strong>‘s Chris Cillizza (9\/11\/17) about the McCain interview was not the call for mass slaughter but how happy he seemed.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Building on this corporate synergy, CNN<\/b>\u2019s resident dullard<\/a> Chris Cillizza wrote a creepy hagiography for the senator the very next day (9\/11\/17<\/a>), headlined \u201cThe Inspiring Joy of McCain.\u201d (Not to be confused with the creepy McCain hagiography he wrote two months ago, \u201cThe Absolutely Remarkable Life of John McCain\u201d\u20147\/20\/17<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

After assuring the reader McCain was \u201cno saint\u201d who had \u201cmade mistakes\u201d (borrowing from McCain\u2019s own faux-humble language in the linked interview), Cillizza went on to praise the lawmaker with generic flattery, noting his \u201cwillingness to get knocked down seven times and get up eight,\u201d whatever that means.<\/p>\n

\n

In a political world in which it seems like the worst behavior is rewarded the most and which people appear to have lost total faith in the men and women they have sent to Washington to represent them, McCain’s joy should<\/i> matter.<\/p>\n

It should be a reminder that most politicians are in politics for the right reasons. That politicians can represent the best of us rather than our worst impulses. That getting knocked down isn’t a death sentence. That we are a resilient people and that our politics can once again be not only resilient but downright joyful.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What does any of this mean? How can Cillizza possibly know that \u201cmost politicians are in politics for the right reasons\u201d? He doesn\u2019t; it\u2019s simply groveling, power-serving flattery of a sitting senator from a news network that maintains, at least in theory<\/a>, that its purpose is to hold power to account.<\/p>\n

Clearly it\u2019s commentary\u2014though not labeled as opinion\u2014but of what use is it? \u00a0What did Tapper\u2019s interview or Cillizza\u2019s vacuous write-up of it accomplish? A bit of legacy-buffing for McCain, some deeply pernicious pro-war talking points, and a few chuckles between two old friends.<\/p>\n

\n

Messages to CNN<\/strong> can be sent to\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0(or via Twitter<\/strong>\u00a0@CNN<\/a>). Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/span>
\nThis piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission from FAIR<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professional truth-teller and self-appointed Russian counter-propagandist Jake Tapper had Arizona Sen. John McCain on his State of Union show (CNN, 9\/10\/17) for a chummy interview Sunday night. The interview began with Tapper lobbing softballs at McCain about his mortality and reminiscing about buddying up on the 2000 campaign trail (Tapper was, according to his then-editor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2521,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-325765","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325765\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}