December 9, 2016

NYT anti-Trump headlines are getting pretty funny.

This morning I'm seeing: "Trump Is Still Not Very Popular, and His Problem With Women Could Return." Sounds like a petulant teenager.

And "Grandiose Ideas for Donald Trump Inaugural Give Way to Traditional." What were the grandiose ideas? All I'm seeing is that Trump's friend Mark Burnett (producer of "The Apprentice") thought of "a parade up Fifth Avenue" and "a helicopter ride to Washington from New York," but it sounds as though the idea has pretty much always been to do another traditional inauguration. I'd say it's already very weird if not crazy to many people that Donald Trump will be President, so doing something weird/crazy would actually be less weird than inserting the man into the most traditional inaugural setting. It's like why the Marx Brothers did "A Night at the Opera" rather than "A Night at the Burlesque Theater."

I'm most amused by the first line of the "Trump Is Still Not Very Popular" article:
Hillary Clinton, in a rare postelection public appearance, said on Thursday that “lives are at risk” from an “epidemic of malicious fake news.”
Well, I get my fake news from the NYT. Is my life in danger? Or is fake-news'll-kill-ya part of the fake news?
“It’s a danger that must be addressed and addressed quickly,” she said at the Capitol, days after a gunman was arrested at a Washington pizza restaurant that had been linked to a fictitious child sex ring.

Speaking at the unveiling of a portrait of the Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, who is retiring, Mrs. Clinton joked that the occasion was not the postelection visit she had once pictured.

“This is not exactly the speech at the Capitol I hoped to be giving,” she said. “But after a few weeks of taking selfies in the woods, I thought it’d be a good idea to come out.”
No, it's actually a good idea to go into the woods. With or without selfies. Showing up at the unveiling of a portrait of Harry Reid is just really sad. But you made news. Fake news. Fake news about fake news. Look out! It's killing us.

Now, why does an article with the headline "Trump Is Still Not Very Popular, and His Problem With Women Could Return" begin with that dismal Hillary story? It's actually a collection of 10 little stories. Only 2 were selected for the headline — the 2 that makes Trump look worst.

The Return of the Problem With Women bit is justified by an ad for a bacon cheeseburger:



That is pretty atrocious. What it has to do with Trump is that he's picked Andrew F. Puzder for Secretary of Labor, and Puzder is the chief executive of CKE Restaurants, which owns Carl's Jr. (along with Hardee's, Green Burrito, and Red Burrito). Puzder was quoted last year saying "I like our ads. I like beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis. I think it’s very American." If I was going to defend an ad like that, I'd say it's a brilliant parody of all the ads that have used sexual innuendo to sell a product. Pushing beyond light innuendo has been going on since that "Take it off, take it all off" Noxzema shaving cream ad, which seared the Noxema brand into our memory in 1967:



The subtle use of sex to sell products happens in ads all the time. It's funny to just be blatant. It's like an SNL ad parody. And there's an inherent limit to how far you can go: Do you want that shaving cream on your face? Do you want that bacon cheeseburger in your mouth? You have to sell the product, and you can't make it disgusting.

128 comments:

Once written, twice... said...

See. Ann somehow continues to spin all news to trash Hillary.

Once written, twice... said...

Ann, what is the most negative post you written about Trump in the last three months?

Cruel neutrality my ass.

Sydney said...

I wish your tag "Hillary goes away" was true. There's a link at Instapundit about this little speech that points out she wants Congress to do something about "fake news." She needs to go into the wilderness and examine her conscience rather than hang around blaming others for her bad decisions.

Bay Area Guy said...

“I like our ads,” Mr. Puzder told the publication Entrepreneur. “I like beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis. I think it’s very American.”

The Senate must confirm this man now!

tim in vermont said...

“It’s a danger that must be addressed and addressed quickly,” - HRC bemoaning the fact that as a major party candidate who was under criminal investigation for her actions a SoS, and who was only "exonerated" on the grounds that she didn't understand she was committing a crime, the press actually reported the story.

"The problem with the internet is that there are no gatekeepers." - HRC bemoaning the fact that the press reported truthfully on her sexual predator of a husband.

Give her credit, that's her story and she's sticking to it!

Once is on the same wavelength, to use an old radio metaphor she might be too young to understand, the problem is that people should never hear stories about Harry Reid, who, like Hillary, grew personally rich in public office.

Once written, twice... said...

It will be interesting to look back a year from now. Ann, you will have to own that you had zero critical thinking when it came to Trump.

I think your years of immersing yourself in reality TV left you with an inability to discern the superficial from what is important.

rehajm said...

“lives are at risk” from an “epidemic of malicious fake news.”

Fake news that puts lives at risk: Benghazi was because of a video. Assange raped a girl on vacation. Hillary lost because of James Comey.

Okay. That last one only puts leftie lives at risk, though I haven't heard of anyone harming themselves by following through with their threats by moving to Canada.

On the other hand maybe that last one actually saves lives as the truth that Hillary was a horrible candidate with horrible ideas would probably send lefties over the edge.

tim in vermont said...

Ann, what is the most negative post you written about Trump in the last three months?

Yeah, Althouse is single-handedly balancing the New York Times. If it weren't for her, Hillary would be president-elect right now, and Comey would by trying to figure out how he was going to retire without his federal pension, Bill would be reviewing resumes of interns, with photos, of course, for his office in the West Wing, and all would be right with the world!

Greek Donkey said...

If I had a blog and posted about all of the Washington Post, New Tork Times and NPR stories that focus on speculatuon on the potential negative consequences of Trump's presidency, I would tag them with "NegSpec" so I could go back later and compare them to what actually happened. NPR is particularly egregious with leading questions. And if they don't get the answer they want, they change the subject - "But surely you would agree that [this other thing] is [horrible] [unprecedented] etc.

The media seems to be doing a repeat of its mistakes during the campaign.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Democrats always accuse others of doing what they do.

Sally327 said...

I think the Hardees ad is directed at men who like food and women that look like that. I find the ad objectionable not because of blatant sexuality (I know I"m not the target audience) but because I cannot, in good conscience, eat something like that without feeling like I've swallowed a whale and feeling guilty worrying about the calories and the cholesterol and the sodium. How many calories would be in that anyway? Where's Michelle Obama, she could tell me.

It tempts me, not the women of course, the food. Ads like that should be banned from our airways! As I finish my morning oatmeal and desperately push away the thought of going out for a bacon cheeseburger at lunch today. Maybe if I only eat half of it?

damikesc said...

Hillary Clinton, in a rare postelection public appearance, said on Thursday that “lives are at risk” from an “epidemic of malicious fake news.”

She's right.

Cops are being killed due to fake news.
Men have their due process rights eliminated due to fake news.

I bet she's not referring to that.

rhhardin said...

Bob and Ray's public service announcement from the U.S. Mint encouraging people to use money wasn't set in a strip club, though.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

An article about Trump. First sentence begins "Hillary Clinton ..."

Well, that's the NYT fer ya.

traditionalguy said...

Hillary is seriously warning her globalist gang members that losing control of the Narrative News loses elections which then loses your political power.

She seems to be recommending either better Narrative News scripts or making alternative news sources illegal. Which is the same mesage we now hear from Me-Again Kelly.

David Begley said...

One way to stop fake news is to defund NPR. Goodbye Nina Totenberg!

rhhardin said...

No gatekeepers.

For doubled letters, go with bookkeeper or subbookkeeper.

They watch over the gatekeepers.

rhhardin said...

Doorkeeper is a slight improvement.

Curious George said...

"Greek Donkey said...
The media seems to be doing a repeat of its mistakes during the campaign."

Replies the scorpion: "Its my nature..."

rhhardin said...

Dorkkeeper is the wife of a nerd.

JSD said...

The progressive era will be over when progressives become the butt of jokes. It hasn’t happened yet, but it will happen. There’s too much material to be ignored. I grew up in the hippie era when people actually took them serious. They became ridiculous sometime in the mid 70’s. John Belushi smashing the folk guitar in Animal House stands out. Even though the movie is set in the early 60’s, it was really funny to see a reactionary slob trash the emerging culture of peace and love. The humor might not have worked five years earlier, but in 1978, it was perfect. The progressives take themselves way too seriously. They will have their turn at playing the rodeo clown.

David said...

The lead in video is interesting. A guy who joined the Navy in 1940 "so that he could have something to eat" and ended up at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

rhhardin said...

The chief effect of the November 8 election was to synchronize menstrual cycles worldwide.

David said...

"“But after a few weeks of taking selfies in the woods, I thought it’d be a good idea to come out.”

Hillary says something that is actually amusing. You go girl.


Ignorance is Bliss said...

...a Washington pizza restaurant that had been linked to a fictitious child sex ring.

And we know the child sex ring is fictitious how?

I certainly assume it is, but where has this been proven, such that we can now state fictitious as a fact?

tim in vermont said...

The ad is over the top with three women. It's too many. It will turn into a hen party, they will end up talking about stuff you don't care about. Two is a better number, like two girls, one sub.

Once written, twice... said...

Ignorance is Bliss, where is the proof that Trump has stopped beating Melania?

Jim Gust said...

Atrocious is in the eye of the beholder.

I find that Noxzema commercial revolting, and it does not make me want to shave.

mezzrow said...

America reads NYT: "blah blah blah TRUMP blah SEX blah blah FAKE blah blah SEXIST."

America hears: "Four more years! Four more years!"

ow, t: is this performance art or are you a more sophisticated bot? Nice work. Very bitchy.

Pookie Number 2 said...

See. Ann somehow continues to spin all news to trash Hillary.

The news article in question began with Hillary's complaint about "fake news". In that context, it's completely appropriate to note both Hillary's endless mendacity and her explicit desire to use governmental force against people criticizing her. Trashing Hillary is always a good thing, but in this case, it's also on point.

Hagar said...

I watch CBS Evening News to keep up with the enemy propaganda, however irritating it might be, but after the election it has gotten ridiculous. They are still in campaign mode and actually have increased the level to the point that it is entertaining, and I just sit there laughing.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Once written, twice... said...

Ignorance is Bliss, where is the proof that Trump has stopped beating Melania?

There isn't any, and I would certainly would hope that if Trump were accused of it, and someone wrote a newspaper article about the accusation, they would not state that the accusation was false. They can point out that is is just an allegation, that it is disputed, and that the accuser has provided no evidence. They can use adjectives like outlandish and unsubstantiated.

Why go with the unproven statement that it is fictitious?

Ron said...

Think of the sex you'll get if you eat a hamburger while shaving! Throw in a beer ad or two, and you couldn't get outta bed for a week!

Bruce Hayden said...

The progressive era will be over when progressives become the butt of jokes. It hasn’t happened yet, but it will happen. There’s too much material to be ignored.

Agreed - it is coming. One of my favorite new shows on TV this year is The Great Indoors (TV series), which pits a Gen X boss (Joel McHale) and his Boomer boss, against a Millennial staff. Millennials, of course, appear to hate it. But, then, they don't watch that much TV anyway, so the show might have a chance. The Millennials on the staff think the oldsters are completely lost technologically, but the older generations think that the Millennials are lost in life, unable to meet people of the opposite sex, date them, have sex with them, etc. They have crushes, but are clueless as how to pursue them. Too involved in the electronic world, and not enough in the real world. Not quite the progressives that really need mocking, but the Millennials there could easily be envisioned on campus breaking down over a Trump win. Part of the show's allure is its portrayal of just how weird Millennials are, who refuse to grow up and face the real world.

Fen said...

I agree with Hillary that we need to revisit the 1st Amendment. Freedom of the press is wonderful in principle, but we don't have that - we have a Monopoly of Thought that censors information that conflicts with the liberal narrative and promotes lies like "hands up don't shoot". Lies that spawn race hate and get police officers assassinated out of revenge.

So I'm on board, Hillary. Wapo, CNN, NYTs - shut them all down. They have abused freedom of the press and should suffer the consequences. Start over, this time with diversity quotas requiring 50% must be conservative or libertarian, instead of the 93% liberal we have now.

Thanks so much for clearing my head on this one. You are so smart.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Okay, I wrote my comment as if the accusation was that Trump was beating Melania, not that he has stopped. So my answer should probably be tweaked, but that would be too much trouble.

tim in vermont said...

Nothing will make climbing into bed with even one of those three girls less likely than eating regularly at places like Carl's

Laslo Spatula said...

At the Ad Agency…

“So what is the difference between your concept and the ad we currently are running?”

“It’s entirely different. We get FOUR beautiful female models suggestively holding the burger.”

“That’s not different, that’s just an extra pair of tits. How about if they were holding hot dogs? We could definitely do something with that.”

“Our client doesn’t sell hot dogs.”

“Now that’s a shame: we could’ve made a really good ad with that. Because hot dogs make people think of cocks.”

“Bananas do that too. Do they make banana milkshakes?”

“Sadly, no. But I think you’re on to something: how about the models slowly drink vanilla milkshakes, and at the end of the commercial they have milkshake all over their lips, which they then lick with their tongues.”

“Like they just gave a blow-job?”

“EXACTLY like they just gave a blow-job.”

“I think we need to take this further. What if we have a guy —“

“What kind of guy? Construction Guy? Hipster?”

“—Construction Guy, obviously. We’re not selling this shit to Hipsters, they go for that Gay Fruit Smoothies shit.”

“Of course.”

“So the Construction Guy POURS the milkshake over the models’ lips: he’s got enough milkshake for FOUR girls, if you get what I’m saying.”

“Oh, I get it. But what if we take it one step further?

“Further is always better: what do you have in mind?”

“We have a LINE of Construction Workers, all pouring their milkshakes over the models’ lips and faces! It just keeps coming and coming!”

“Milkshake Bukkake? Genius!”

“The models can’t even open their eyes, there is so much milkshake!”

“The models are in bras, and the milkshake drips down onto their tits!”

“Ummm…”

“Yes? You have a problem?”

“Should we run this by Carol? You know — get a women’s perspective?”

“Ahhh, Carol’s busy on some Sports Tampon project, let’s just go with it…”

“Yeah. Besides, women don’t buy our client’s products, their boyfriends do.”

“Indeed. We have one last hurdle, though.”

“What is that?”

“How diverse do we make the Construction Workers?”

“I hadn’t thought of that.”

“Yeah. Do we really want a big strong black guy pouring his milkshake all over a white model’s face?”

“I kinda think we have to. We don’t want to get called racist.”

“Okay, ONE black man — but no Asians.”

“DEFINITELY no Asians. Our client’s customers are not going to want to see a Chinese Guy pouring his milkshake on a white women — they’re already pissed at the Chinese for taking all their jobs.”

“I think we have a commercial, gentlemen…”

I am Laslo.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Fen said...

So I'm on board, Hillary. Wapo, CNN, NYTs - shut them all down.

Well, those are all corporations, so they don't have first amendment rights anyway, but to be safe I wouldn't actually shut them down. I would just prohibit them from spending money on paper, ink, electricity, salaries, etc. Because money isn't speech.

Once written, twice... said...

Has everyone seen the allegations that Trump beats Melania? So far I haven't seen any good evidence proving these allegations to be false.

Bruce Hayden said...

See. Ann somehow continues to spin all news to trash [Crooked] Hillary.

Deservedly so. Woman is evil, almost incarnate, and deserves to be run out of town on a rail, tar, feathered, drawn, quartered, and then banished to the lowest reaches of the netherworld. Selling US foreign policy for personal gain, and compromising national security for personal convenience and protection both should have resulted in long term confinement at a federal facility, preferably including hard labor, instead of coming within maybe 100k votes in three states of being able to pardon herself. If the MSM had been doing their job, instead of trying to drag her diseased carcass over the finish line, she wouldn't have had come so close. And, they still haven't owned up to their part, but, instead, continue to lead the fight against the guy who beat her, despite their best efforts.

rhhardin said...

In actual life, your girlfriend just says don't get whiskers in the sink.

Pookie Number 2 said...

Has everyone seen the allegations that Trump beats Melania?

I don't think that such allegations actually exist. It is interesting that Hillary supporters believe that there aren't enough real issues about which to criticize Trump, so they have to make stuff up.

tcrosse said...

Laslo, you magnificent bastard !

RMc said...

Hillary Clinton, in a rare postelection public appearance

Hillary is a 69-year-old woman with serious health problems, problems that certainly would been exacerbated by doing a stressful job like the Presidency. By defeating her, Trump probably saved her life.

Once written, twice... said...

Of course allegations exist that Trump beats Melania. Otherwise we wouldn't be talking about them.

RMc said...

"I like beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis."

Why did they put bikinis on the hamburgers?

Bruce Hayden said...

For anyone who enjoyed that commercial, here are a bunch of them: Top Ten Reasons Andy Puzder Is a Great Pick for Labor Secretary. Ten ads showing beautiful, hot, women, mostly in bikinis or other skimpy attire, (mostly) eating their burgers. Of course, if the models and actresses doing the commercials were to actually eat the food that much, they wouldn't be so hot.

I expect that it hits the target demographic (working class men) right where they are most vulnerable. Turns out, of course, to have been one of Trump's strongest demographics. So, no surprise that the left (who didn't vote for Trump, and can't contemplate how anyone could) can't understand the ads.

Despite the appearance of their burgers, they really are decent. Plus, one of the few fast food places where lettuce wrapped burgers are advertised on the menu - and they do a good job at it. And, if I remember correctly, they are the ones with sweet potato fries. Carl Jr. is one of the very few fast food places that my partner will tolerate food from. (My fav, McDonald's (because of their $1 drinks), is at the bottom of her list, having worked at one when 16, getting the only pimples in her life, working around all that grease).

AllenS said...

Once written, twice... Sad...

tcrosse said...

Local Man says that Trump beats Melania.
Meanwhile, Many say that Hillary proposes a Ministry of Truth.
Some say that Hillary should just go back to the woods. Sources say that she has just completed construction of a gingerbread house there.

Sebastian said...

"That is pretty atrocious." No, no it isn't.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Did Puzder use Roger Ailes to find his burger girls, because I've seen a lot of these commercials (I remember when Paris Hilton was washing a car and eating a big old Carl's Jr. burger years ago) and I can't recall any other, er, model type he has used other than young very blonde ones.

Fake News fact: Megyn Kelly used to be a burger girl for Puzder!

Darrell said...

Once written, twice shit on the sidewalk... is having a bad day. They should give Chuck a call.

Once written, twice... said...

Why hasn't Puzder made a commercial with three young almost naked studs? Someone should ask him that.

tcrosse said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mYr90nCFZE
Leave it to the Brits to use sex to sell candy. Cadbury Flake commercials rely on soft-porn production values to show a pretty girl putting this cylindrical object in her mouth. They've been doing this for years.

MayBee said...

I remember when it was the fuddy duddy Christian Evangelicals who didn't like these ads. Women in them were empowered.

Are we changing that now? Sex workers, strippers, Victoria's Secrets Angels, Actresses who get naked...... no longer feminist? Back to being subjugated?
Now that I think about it, it does seem women in hijabs are now considered empowered.

Darrell said...

The NYT and Hillary put out false news all the time. Hillary sends a Double out to talk to a little girl after fainting at the 9/11 ceremony and the NYT dutifully reports it--without questioning (no Joker smile on "Hillary," no blue eyes, lack of Secret Service detail, why is she exposing the little girl to bacterial or viral pneumonia.)

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Once written, twice... said...

Why hasn't Puzder made a commercial with three young almost naked studs? Someone should ask him that.

That is a wonderful question. So great in fact that the Democrats should hold off on asking it until the next Presidential election campaign, and have the Democratic nominee ask it, in an ad broadcast throughout the "blue wall" states.

Please. Pretty please. I double-dog dare you...

MayBee said...

It's weird everyone has jumped on board using the same term, "Fake News". As if that's a term that's long been in use, but it hasn't. It's obvious someone is pushing the idea out- a PR team or a think tank or something.

grackle said...

This morning I'm seeing: "Trump Is Still Not Very Popular, and His Problem With Women Could Return." Sounds like a petulant teenager.

Also:

The media seems to be doing a repeat of its mistakes during the campaign.

Correction: Sounds like a Social Justice Warrior, who ALWAYS sounds like a “petulant teenager.”

A very few progressives probably realize that the identity politics of the Obama Era has lost them the governors, the state legislators, the Congress, soon the SCOTUS and now, finally, the Presidency. But they are VERY few. The rest are still flogging the same old identity politics issues or trying to think up some new ones.

There ARE intelligent folks among the Lefties that realize that they must get off the identity politics train wreck. They might be able to effect change in the direction of their end of the political spectrum.

However THAT caveat does not extend to the MSM, the propaganda arm of the Lefties. These silly award-winning dumbasses cannot change. They are total whores. They are like a whore that has been diagnosed with syphilis but keeps on turning tricks in the alley.

And they will continue with the identity politics because, like a whore, that is all they know how to do. Real investigative reporting is beyond them – it’s an appendage that that has become useless through lack of use.

I never thought I would see this day but the election of Trump means that the biased MSM coverage hurts the Lefties more than it helps them.

rhhardin said...

I never thought I would see this day but the election of Trump means that the biased MSM coverage hurts the Lefties more than it helps them.

News is a business depending on soap opera. The lefty politicians are just free-riding on it.

Peter said...

"Well, I get my fake news from the NYT. Is my life in danger? Or is fake-news'll-kill-ya part of the fake news?"

Fake News is what the New York Times says it is. Newspaper Of Record, ain't it?

“It’s a danger that must be addressed and addressed quickly,” she said.' But if Trump said this, there'd be a fresh round of "He's gonna repeal the First Amendment!" hysteria.

Most of us are just pleased and relieved that Hillary Clinton's latest reach for the levers of political power failed. And it doesn't really matter much what the NYT newsroom thinks about that.

Darrell said...

The news was filled yesterday with stories of Michelle Obama's new hairstyle that she debuted for the Toy For Tots Marine kickoff. Michelle wears wigs costing $8000 to $30,000 and always has since she's been in the White House. Her real hair is as long as Barack's. Fake news? You bet. They don't even ask who has the best hair--Michelle or Caitlyn Jenner.

holdfast said...

Apparently Pudzer is a big open-borders guy. Not so good.

But if he just wants H1-B visas for hot, blond Russian models, we'll let it slide.

MayBee said...

We already know Hillary would like to be able to ban books and movies that are about her, if they come at the wrong time of year. Citizens United!!!!! So yeah, her push against fake news is pretty alarming.

mockturtle said...

Sally, the very same thoughts crossed my mind! As women, we are almost obsessively concerned with calories. The idea of chomping down a big, juicy burger with all the trimmings and still looking good in a bikini IS a fantasy. And we ARE the target audience. You bet!

Fen said...

It's weird everyone has jumped on board using the same term

I know, right? It's almost as if reporters are on some yahoo group called something like "JournoList" coordinating their democrat talking points.

But that's crazy talk! :)

https://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=mcafee&type=C211US105D20150119&p=JournoList

Dr Weevil said...

"It's weird everyone has jumped on board using the same term." No, it's not. It just means that JournoList is still in business under some name or other, coordinating what news Americans are allowed to see, or at least trying to.
I still think the best thing Trump could do for the White House Press Corps is (a) ban all organs of the press from the press conferences that employ any known past or present member of any version of JournoList, and (b) offer a million-dollar reward for an up-to-date list of current members (perhaps with a Press Room amnesty-slot for whoever provides the list). Then fill in the empty chairs with honest journalists, like that small-town Montana editor we were quoting a month or two ago, plus maybe offer a slot to some bloggers. Instapundit and Althouse and Just One Minute and Ace of Spades and (add your own nominations) may not be able to come themselves, but allow each one to either come or send a representative. They could then publish their thoughts about the press conferences on the web. It wouldn't have to be the same representative every time: e.g. Ann could go one week if she's in D.C., or send Meade, or Jaltco, or anyone she cares to send. (Only defect I can think of: if each press-organ has one reserved seat, she and Meade couldn't go to press conferences together. Have to think about that.)

Matt Sablan said...

Any politician complaining about Fake News that has praised the Daily/Colbert Shows is unknowingly part of the problem.

Too many people my age and younger take those as "real news," not the obviously fake partisan comic hit jobs that they are. They can do comedy OK, sometimes even very well. But they aren't news. Yet, still, people treat them like they are.

But, no. I guess Fake News means Pizza Gate. Where was Fake News when Dan Rather was publishing faked documents or Reid was talking about Romney not paying taxes or the 9/11 Truthers? If only we had brilliant minds to come up with the pithy phrase "Fake News" then, think of the lives we could have saved!

Fen said...

"He's gonna repeal the First Amendment!" hysteria, in between pleas that we shut down those "fake" news sites.

Fun times.

damikesc said...

Has everyone seen the allegations that Trump beats Melania?

No. Just as I have not seen the allegations that you touch children inappropriately.

Otherwise we wouldn't be talking about them.

We are also talking about you touching children inappropriately.

Why hasn't Puzder made a commercial with three young almost naked studs? Someone should ask him that.

The track record of male sexuality selling merchandise isn't exactly great.

I remember when it was the fuddy duddy Christian Evangelicals who didn't like these ads. Women in them were empowered.

Yeah, I remember when Puritanical views about sex were considered laughable. Now, they are progressive. The Progs want to take us back to Victorian era taboos on sexuality.

MayBee said...

Listening to CNN this week has really made me aware of how totally the Left-leaning idea has taken over the narrative.

The guy nominated to head the EPA is actually being called a "Climate Denier" by CNN network-wide. By Jake Tapper even!
For labor secretary, there is shock that the argument is no longer about the national minimum wage should be $15 or $12, and they do not know how to process this.

I've heard CNN reporters talk about how people are going to have their insurance "ripped from them".

They are so much less aware of the conservative arguments than I'd ever imagined. They seem astounded someone might actually have the audacity to try to put them in action.

William said...

It's part of my life's ongoing tragedy that bacon cheeseburgers are readily available and supermodels in bikinis are not. Is it any wonder that obesity is a greater public health issue than STDs.

Fen said...

But, no. I guess Fake News means Pizza Gate.

Call me crazy but I have a suspicion that Fake News means "information that disagrees with the liberal narrative".

"As a Democrat, I believe the citizens who should exercise power directly to form a governing body are too stupid to have a free press."

Matt Sablan said...

"They are so much less aware of the conservative arguments than I'd ever imagined."

-- This is common. As a moderate Republican, I can fully understand and even provide commentary about the left's positions, and even the far left or far right's positions. Once you go to center left or further, they are pretty much completely ignorant of what the right believes/thinks/feels, instead turning us into bogeymen and bogeywomen who literally want the poor to die in the streets so we can get richer, somehow.

Matt Sablan said...

There was an interesting experiment done on a board I used to be on. For a week, the regular posters were asked to legitimately take the opposite side they normally did. The regular left posters took it as an opportunity to parody/insult the right, saying things like, "Jesus don't bury no dinosaurs!" while the posters on the right actually understood the left's positions and gave honest attempts to use the left's arguments.

It was incredibly instructive to me.

Fen said...


The track record of male sexuality selling merchandise isn't exactly great.

It's from evolution, being hardwired as a sight-hunter makes males visual creatures. Same reason males have an easier time with imagining three dimensional images. So we are more influenced by visual imagery.

Women are more auditory, which is why so many men sit back clueless as women communicate with tone and nuance that doesn't even register in our minds.

It's also why we keep leaving the toilet seat up.

Fen said...

It was incredibly instructive to me.

Exactly. If you can't articulate your opponent's position as well as they do, you aren't even in the game.

William said...

The NYT doesn't have a monoply on the news, but it's got a huge say in what news is respectable and fit to print. A lot of news is considered disreputable or scandalous and simply ignored. John Edwards springs to mind. I remember during the debates Anderson Cooper openly invited women to come forward and claim that Trump had physically accosted them. Presto, such women appeared the next day and their stories were sympathetically reported. I don't remember such investigative journalism during Clinton's campaigns. I do remember stories about bimbos and women with big hair. The subliminal message to Clinton's women was shut up and to Trump's women it was come forward. All the news that the NYT sees fit to print.

Fen said...

I never thought I would see this day but the election of Trump means that the biased MSM coverage hurts the Lefties more than it helps them.

It's why Corruption should be avoided at all costs. You may make some short term gains, but it always comes home to bite you in the ass, and it usually brings everything down. Just look at all the zombies wandering the streets still shell-shocked that Hillary didn't pull a 300+ EC landslide. Thank you for setting them up MSM.

Once written, twice... said...

Well if you Althouse Hillbillies can cling to that it has not been proven that Pizzagate is false then I can continue to point out that there is no proof that Trump has stopped beating Melinia.

Dr Weevil said...

Once again 'Once written' provides the best illustration of the Pope's recent comparison of the appetite for fake news to coprophilia and coprophagy. I won't tell him to ESAD partly because it would bring me too far on the way down to his level, partly because he's already half-way there.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Once written, twice... said...

Well if you Althouse Hillbillies can cling to that it has not been proven that Pizzagate is false then I can continue to point out that there is no proof that Trump has stopped beating Melinia.

An I can continue to point out that you are a moron. Nobody here is clinging to the fact that Pizzagate has not been proven false. I don't expect the media to treat it as if it is true. I'm just criticizing them for implying that it has been proven false.

Sydney said...

I still think the best thing Trump could do for the White House Press Corps is (a) ban all organs of the press from the press conferences that employ any known past or present member of any version of JournoList

Yes. It's a scandal that anyone on JournoList is still working in the news business.

Fen said...

Once again 'Once written' provides

Shrug. He's actually helping - his kind of nonsense actually immunizes Trump against legitimate criticism. I'm sure there will be many good faith complaints about Trump in the coming years, but most of our time and energy will instead be spent sweeping away the "Trump is Hitler" nonsense.

What amazes me is that, after discovering they are their own worst enemy, they double down.

mockturtle said...

What amazes me is that, after discovering they are their own worst enemy, they double down.

That may be, in part, because they saw Trump double down with great success. The problem with the left is that they are irredeemably clueless.

mockturtle said...

Speaking of the 'left', does anyone here remember Daniel Patrick Moynihan? How long would he last in today's Democratic Party? They have sold out to special-interest groups like gays, Hollywood and feminists and against the very family unit that Moynihan so eloquently defended.

Pookie Number 2 said...

Well if you Althouse Hillbillies can cling to that it has not been proven that Pizzagate is false then I can continue to point out that there is no proof that Trump has stopped beating Melinia.

No-one serious believes Pizzagate, but that's because it's ridiculous, not because it's been disproven. The fact that the media neither understands nor cares about that distinction is not ridiculous, and it's another reason for the media's ever-diminishing credibility. If it's important to you that your own credibility deteriorate, then by all means keep making your own ridiculous claims about Trump.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

The biggest progenitor of Fake News over the last decade or more has been the Obama admin, personified by the man himself.

Who originally described him as foreign-born? Why his own autobiography did!

Who changed the way we tabulate the unemployed so that we no longer count people who have given up looking for work? Why Obama's Dept. of Labor did, making the "unemployment rate" magically drop during his term.

Who said "there isn't even a whiff of scandal" regarding the IRS targeting conservatives? Why that was the man himself again!

Who said ISIS is the JV team? Duh!

Who said there were 57 states he'd visited? Of course!

Who said he was "bending the cost curve" on medical expenditures? Black Jesus again!

There's oh so much more fake news to be noted, but only so much time in my day.

mockturtle said...

damikesc opines: The track record of male sexuality selling merchandise isn't exactly great.

I'm not so sure. Remember these? Hunkvertisments

Big Mike said...

Question #1. Did the commercial increase the sales of Carl's Jr. bacon cheeseburgers? If yes, then the ad worked. If not, then, well, it's fun to watch even for an old geezer like me.

Question #2. Women fry bacon in skimpy bikinis? I think not!!!

damikesc said...

Well if you Althouse Hillbillies can cling to that it has not been proven that Pizzagate is false then I can continue to point out that there is no proof that Trump has stopped beating Melinia.

No proof has been presented that you don't touch children inappropriately. Just like Harry Reid did.

Fen said...

As for Rather, my favorite memory was watching him say something close to "some have cast doubt, but you can trust us here at CBS to break that story"

Powerline had posted their MS Word gif 24 hours ago. It was already over, and CBS was 24 hours behind the story. That was the moment I realized the MSM was mortal and could be beaten.

Thanks Buckhead (FR) wherever you are these days.

Matt Sablan said...

"I'm sure there will be many good faith complaints about Trump in the coming years, but most of our time and energy will instead be spent sweeping away the "Trump is Hitler" nonsense."

-- It worked so well when they tried it with Bush. Well, I guess it did, kind of, didn't it?

gilbar said...

as the saying goes: men are visual, women are contextual; this is why women wear makeup, and men lie

"It's from evolution, being hardwired as a sight-hunter makes males visual creatures. Same reason males have an easier time with imagining three dimensional images. So we are more influenced by visual imagery.

Women are more auditory, which is why so many men sit back clueless as women communicate with tone and nuance that doesn't even register in our minds.
"

Skeptical Voter said...

Out here in California we see a lot of those Carl's Junior ads featuring big boobed babes in bikinis biting burgers. Over the top? Heck yes. Does it resonate with the biggest burger eating audience--which is young men? Heck yes.

Now it may be tasteless, but it sells burgers. As for the women in the ads? They have got it, and boy do they flaunt it!

mockturtle said...

Gilbar, at certain times in history it was the men who were more vain and exhibitionist. Women, like Elizabeth I, were very attracted to the 'shape of a man's leg', and the codpiece..well, it goes without saying.

damikesc said...

Gilbar, at certain times in history it was the men who were more vain and exhibitionist. Women, like Elizabeth I, were very attracted to the 'shape of a man's leg', and the codpiece..well, it goes without saying.

I just think, though, of the hygiene from the past. Cannot imagine the foul stench of sex from, say, the Renaissance.

Alex said...

Women selling burgers in bikinis is as American as Jesus Christ, apple pie, Mom and Old Glory!

mikeski said...

Why did they put bikinis on the hamburgers?

So there would be the space in-between to bite into. A hamburger in a one-piece just wouldn't have worked.

mockturtle said...

Women are more auditory, which is why so many men sit back clueless as women communicate with tone and nuance that doesn't even register in our minds.

I'm always amused when men think they know women. Very few do. But those few are very scary.

BN said...

Was I the only one who caught the subliminal message "EAT ME" flashing on and off at the end of the commercial?

Kirk Parker said...


AprilApple:

[Democrats] Always Project (it's observation #2, the title of the book is observation #1.)


Sally327,

Maybe Althouse can do a post on this. In the course of my brief life, I have eaten numerous things that a perhaps-shouldn't-have-eaten, and felt things like 'bloated', or 'heartburn', etc. But never once have I felt anything remotely resembling 'guilt'!

This seems to be a female malady, and perhaps more specifically an American-female malady. It would be interesting to have La Althouse explore this theme...

(And good grief! Skip the oatmeal, and have eggs instead; go out for the bacon cheesburger but toss the bun; and you most likely will be fine.)

Kirk Parker said...


"By defeating her, Trump probably saved her life."

OK, there's one the negative side of the ledger.

Warren Fahy said...

Considering how elaborately the fakery is woven in and out of stories like this, I wonder if America's most esteemed journalists know or were ever even taught the fundamentals of honest journalism. You do a great service unraveling that process for everyone to see. As a writer I can spot the legerdemain in articles like this going on, and that employed in the Rolling Stone rape story, and I can see just how tortured and worked out the fakery is enough to know it is a group effort and seems like a full-time job now. They probably congratulate each other on how cleverly they worked it out. In other words, it is the culture of the news room now and they are in the business of fake news. It's what they do, like propagandists at war. It's a very bad business strategy. People want information, not this stuff. It's as if you went to a lemonade stand and they couldn't manage to deliver a cup of lemonade to you without pissing in it...

mockturtle said...

Warren, I have seen a lack of even the basic 'Four W's' from high school journalism in many stories.

Sprezzatura said...

If I was ugly and poor such that I didn't have intimate knowledge of gals like those, and hotter, I would be repelled by this add.

It looks like it's trying to trick losers into eating hamburgers since they can't hang w/ hot gals.

I don't get how this ad could work. It's hard to imagine so many loser-y dudes exist. OTOH, maybe this is meant for geezers who can't afford trophy gals.

I dunno.

Sprezzatura said...

add = ad

Sprezzatura said...

Even subconsciously, how many dudes actually think "golly those gals like burgers, so if I eat burgers, those-type gals will like me"? Or, are they supposed to think that eating a fast food burger w/ bacon is like being w/ hot gals? Or, maybe the idea is that eating this fast food burger makes you as satisfied as doing hot gals? How could anyone fall for that, even subconsciously? Even if Saison in SF pushed that sorta claim it'd be ludicrous, but for some nasty fast food burger? WTF is wrong w/ people if they fall for this?

Joe said...

Why hasn't Puzder made a commercial with three young almost naked studs?

I'm sure they made such an ad and it bombed in a test market.

Look at the ads another way; it's giving women employment by taking money from men! It's hopelessly politically correct!

Anonymous said...

The woman in the Noxema ad did the voice-over for the "Venus" character in the Fireball XL5 TV show. Reason enough to watch it again after 50 years. Yeah I'll buy hamburgers on account of bikiki clad hotties. My testosterone is dropping with age but it's not zero yet.

Sprezzatura said...

"Yeah I'll buy hamburgers on account of bikiki clad hotties. My testosterone is dropping with age but it's not zero yet."

My gut tells me that this sort of thinking should be grounds for removing a person's voting rights.

OTOH, if we came up w/ enough other sorts of tests for irrational decision making to keep folks from voting there probably wouldn't be anyone left who would be allowed to vote. Everyone would fail in some way or another.

Sheesh.



Unknown said...

As to PizzaGate, if you understand how the deranged theory began, you'll understand that there's no more need to "disprove" it than there is to disprove the long term "world leaders are secretly reptilians" conspiracy theories.

I feel fairly confident that the originator on Reddit was merely trolling, but he also could have simply been a paranoid schizophrenic. The basic path to how all of this began is that one Reddit user posted a conspiracy theory on the main Trump subreddit, citing references to cheese pizza and Comet Ping Pong in the leaked Podesta emails. How this turns into "child pornography ring" is essentially as follows.

In the wild old days of 4chan, the anonymous image board, there were a lot of issues with people posting images of child pornography, since they could do so with relative impunity. Frequently, moderators would be called in to delete such images by posting messages such as "mods delete this CP". When the offending images were deleted and the posters banned, other people would simply see the "delete this CP" and would wonder what it meant since the context had been removed, which quickly turned into a jokes about CP meaning "cheese pizza" or "Captain Picard", among others.

That's it. That's all. An obscure meme over a decade old somehow turned into this story that people are actually believing. Other people, either shit-stirrers or psychologically impaired, added their own embellishments and expansions to the original "Clinton tied to child sex ring" posts. An excellent example of this is on Snopes' page on the subject--I'm around 98% sure that I recognize the "enormous refrigerator under Comet Pizza" from an episode of Penn & Teller's Bullshit (specifically the one on PETA and how they eutanize the animals they "save" and store the carcasses in the aforementioned giant fridge). Even if I'm wrong, it's just some empty industrial sized refrigerator that is claimed with no evidence to be under Comet Ping Pong.

Regardless, this is ultimately the way in which every claim regarding PizzaGate has developed. Someone posts something, somewhere on the internet, insinuating something sinister is going on. One or more other people buy into this, because unfortunately the average person is easily alarmed by allegations of pedophilia (see: modern fathers being afraid of being with their daughters in public due to the risk someone might make their life difficult by telling cops they suspect he is a pedophile abducting a child).

Once the story was picked up by the major conspiracy rags like InfoWars, the rest became (dumb) history, as this stupid, baseless, unsubtantiated conspiracy theme virally worked its way through the credulous and unstable.

Does this seem like something that needs to be "proven fictitous"? It indicts itself with its own existence.

-MJL

Sprezzatura said...

MJL,

Your olden days anecdotes are interesting (btw, I'm not being sarcastic), but today's fake news pushers are making good dough by selling ads as they increase traffic by inventing BS.

It sounds like you know that the pizzagate thing wasn't pushed to generate dough for a fake newswer. I dunno. I duncare. But, thinking bigger picture, I do think it's cool that fake newsers can make dough by making up stuff that people are attracted to.

Fun stuff.

Jeff Albertson said...

Ann, George Carlin did a wonderful bit about sex in commercials which mentions the Noxema slogan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5f6nVfAaDA

Unknown said...

LPBO,

It terrifies the hell out of me. It's like a prelude to Orwell's vision of the future.

Whenever someone accepts a premise, they become more willing to accept other premises of equal or lesser improbability.

Their threshold for reality becomes permanently altered (see: the long, long history of blood libel; or basically any religious conversion process, like the necessity of believing in the resurrection of Christ to be able to believe Christian theology; note that atheists are even more prone to this, as their beliefs are not as thoroughly...curated as those of religions that have existed for millennia, and the mutually exclusive nature of religious beliefs consequently reduces the number of things one can have faith in, which is not the case for atheists). This decreased ability to discern reality allows for cognitive dissonance to take root, in ways that are already taken advantage of by both politicians and the media, much to our own misfortune.

The speed of information sharing has been increasing over the last century, to the point that it is now possible for malformed information to spread to millions within minutes. Even convincing a single person that a fact that they have already accepted as truth is in reality incorrect and even ludicrous can be a monumental task, much less millions of people.

And so around the world, there are growing numbers of people whose ability to reason is being progressively damaged in ways impossible in the past. A growing population of people who are increasingly divorced from reality creates terrors, and every genocide owes itself to this function of human behavior.

Fake news which is self-declared as fake, such as the Onion, is fine, just as watching a movie or reading a book that is fictitious does not generally result in someone believing that the events of those stories are real.

What sources that present themselves as legitimate and true news but are instead customizing fake news to their audience are has the result of inflicting people with psychosis. This is the cause of the increasing derangement of the Left when they lose elections. Everyone should be grateful that orthodox modern liberalism is antithetical to guns, because the increasing psychosis of tens of millions of people with guns is outrageously dangerous.

It was not possible for the Right to be as damaged, previously, as recent history has placed the Right in such an adversarial relationship with the news media. The internet has changed this, and for all of the opportunity to express viewpoints in ways that would otherwise not be possible, there are those taking advantage of the platform to spread misinformation, and so now the Right must be more scrupulous about its own news sources to avoid falling victim to the disease that has taken root in the minds of the Left.

All of this is a recipe for the downfall of liberty, if not civilization itself.

-MJL

Unknown said...

*audience are causing has the result

I should have proofread that more and probably not written a sentence that parses so weirdly in the first place.

-MJL

Sprezzatura said...

It seems like fake news is the inevitable next step in click bait. If folks can gather dough by making up stuff, why wouldn't we expect some folks to make up stuff? I blame the dopes who fall for this fake news, as well as the foreigners who trick them:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/how-macedonia-became-a-global-hub-for-pro-trump-misinfo?utm_term=.cm9mNdd2b#.cdwZrMM2o

wildswan said...

Fake News is everywhere suddenly like Ebola or hamburgers with bikinis on them. But how can you tell? Three Signs That You have Been Targeted: You see the letters ABC, NBC or CBS while hearing music and seeing strangers falsely smiling at you.

FryingPanHead said...

Yeah. Because I always include "I could eat a pizza for about an hour" in my e-mails.

Who the hell speaks like that?

Jeff said...

Who changed the way we tabulate the unemployed so that we no longer count people who have given up looking for work? Why Obama's Dept. of Labor did, making the "unemployment rate" magically drop during his term.

I have been a professional economist since 1988, and the unemployment rate has not counted people who are not looking for work as long as I can remember. This is not a recent change.

mockturtle said...

Per Unknown MJL and so now the Right must be more scrupulous about its own news sources to avoid falling victim to the disease that has taken root in the minds of the Left.

So true! And, while we're at it, let's have some real news for a change. Every news network just keeps regurgitating the same, lame issues. Let's get some real reporters to cover the US and the World and find out what's really going on! Get schools to focus on the importance of honest journalism, not journalism to support one's cause.

mockturtle said...

It should not be the focus of journalism to promote social justice.

Sam L. said...

"“It’s a danger that must be addressed and addressed quickly,” she said at the Capitol, days after a gunman was arrested at a Washington pizza restaurant that had been linked to a fictitious child sex ring."

Which reminds me of the guy who went to shoot up Chick-Fil-A HQ because the SPLC named them as a hate group.

Texan99 said...

The commercial's appeal surely is not all that mysterious. The target audience is expected to experience pleasure at the sight of the pretty girls and associate it with the idea of the product in the future. The outrage, if there is any, is about two issues: is it OK to arouse pleasure by showing pretty girls (what about the heartbreak of the less-pretty ones, shouldn't men be less shallow, etc.), and it is OK to try to stimulate interest in an evil non-PC culinary treat like a big fat burger (why not sell tofu instead). If the pleasure were stimulated by an approved topic, like a happy secure toddler, and the product were government-controlled health insurance, all would be A-OK even without a shade more solid logical connection between the pretty picture and the product.

RonF said...

The old boy knows how to sell hamburgers!

Bad Lieutenant said...

Lyin'PB_Ombudsman said...
If I was ugly and poor

Whaddya mean IF? You're rich and handsome like Titus is hot and a top.

I don't get

We see that a lot with you.

It's hard to imagine

For you? Yeah, we get that.

I dunno.

Well, you had to be honest sometime.

12/9/16, 8:42 PM

Bad Lieutenant said...

Nobody has to shoot up any fast food restaurants. Just take John Podesta in a room and don't let him out until he confesses. Or until rigor mortis sets in, whichever. Or just seal up the room afterwards. As a warmup you could process whoever he sent it to first.

When Nicolas Cage in Face Off says "I could eat a peach...for hours," he's not talking about the kind of peaches that grow on trees.