Just too funny.....



  • @JayHawkFanToo Facebook is not a legitimate news source. Are you suggesting that the officer student’s opinion as stated on Facebook is in fact the news, and that by reiterating the social media posts of one person, Heat Street has acted in the capacity of a legitimate news source and “reported the news?” I get what the story sounds like. It’s News Corp’s MO to report things to sound like a certain thing without doing any investigative work.

    Unfortunately, primetime news pundits are also bad at reporting real news.

    Here are some more fun “facts” from Fox. http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/tv/fox/

    And of course, CNN is not much better. http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/tv/cnn/

    WWWCD? (What would Walter Cronkite do?)



  • @approxinfinity The would-be reporters of what I call “alt-media” (both left and right) think it is news to report that “someone has alleged…” or “[some social media site] is reporting that…” with absolutely no independent inquiry into the underlying facts. Reporting the existence of a rumor as fact, thus justifying spreading the rumor.

    Unfortunately it is kind of like what people here are doing in spreading lots of rumors from campus scuttlebutt about the woman in the Bragg incident. When his arrest occurred, we saw many cautions about letting the process work rather than condemning him. There has been a marked lack of willingness to let the system play out when it has come to condemning her.





  • @approxinfinity If you can believe a left leaning website created by the Tampa Bay Times.



  • @mayjay fortunately for “her” she hasn’t had her pic splashed over ESPN and most news media!



  • @brooksmd 💯 you’re right about that. Listening to the news has always been a leap of faith, trusting that the media will present a clear enough picture that is impartial. Maybe that’s just not possible.

    But I do think that the “It’s always a misunderstanding” is pretty much spot on. We are all part of the same society and just by participating in it we implicitly agree on most things. Our differences may be stated explicitly, but they are far less. And the media preys on our insecurities with ourselves and with each other and seeks to divide us and sell their brand of spin to get us tapped into their pipeline and pissed at some other group of Americans. It’s like Will Rogers said: “I never met a man I didn’t like.” I’m pretty sure that spending time with most people will make them 3d individuals and there are redeeming qualities to everyone if given the chance.

    It’s not hard to imagine a situation where a student in fatigues with a gun might make another student uncomfortable, and a policy that requires the professor to confirm that he’s an officer. It’s not hard to imagine a law abiding citizen being irritated about being questioned about his wearing his police gear.

    Why should we spend our imagination on what greater differences might be embodied by a moment of conflict, rather than having empathy for the differing mindsets involved? Someone might dismiss the moment then and say “well then it’s not news”, and I guess it depends on how you define news. Is it Walter Cronkite news? No. It is an American moment, one of the many details of our cultural fabric, that happened to find the light. A little piece of where we are. And maybe the tension is natural. It holds the picture together. But neither side is right or wrong. It’s just a misunderstanding.



  • @brooksmd After all, as long as they all now feel warm & fuzzy, that’s what really matters, right? thank Heavens for social media.Just as well call it social disease-LOL…



  • @approxinfinity earlier this year I saw an interview w/Self and someone asked him if he watched any tv programs, he said he watched news programs while he was on the tread mill. He added that he learned to switch it up or he would go mad just watching one channel.



  • @approxinfinity A brilliant post. I might just add that a few of the mass shootings have involved people who were dressed all in black. We have no idea if the reporting student could see insignia.

    I also think that the prof is not being given any credit for resolving it with a simple phone call, which supports the policy-check story. Had he been panicky, as the overwrought reactionaries are charging he was, I think the situation would have escalated and the campus police would have shown up to question our offended SWAT officer.

    Much ado about nothing caused by a hyper-sensitive guy who is seeing political motivations even in a situation where his out-of-the ordinary behavior created the initial questions.



  • @Crimsonorblue22 Very true. Yet, we have been informed of her religion. Isn’t that oddly irrelevant yet highly manipulative as the campus mobs up to protect the athlete?



  • @KUSTEVE bee watchers

    The problem goes further than just news source bias. As private businesses, news sources have discovered that they sell more news when they maintain balance in systems they report on, so they do so under the guise of championing neutrality.



  • @approxinfinity

    I believe you took my post out of context.

    I never indicated that Facebook was or is a legitimate news source, I simply indicated that the link in the very first post quotes what the officer in the middle of this controversy wrote himself…just about word for word. It did not embellished or changed the context, it simply reported what the alleged aggrieved party reported. Again, Heat Street reported what was trending on Facebook without changing the first person account of the event or vouching for its authenticity. This is the equivalent of the press reporting on Bragg’s deal, which is a news worthy event, without vouching for one side or the other since all the facts were and still are not in. Should the press not report at all that Bragg was arrested, even when all the facts are not in and he might actually be completely innocent? I think not.

    This morning I visited with a friend who happens to be a policeman and had seen the story. His comment was that police uniforms are designed as to not leave any doubt that the individual wearing is in law enforcement. His words were…you would have to be a moron not not know the individual was a law enforcement agent, hard to believe that a college student and a criminal science professor could not see this…I am paraphrasing, of course. The fact that the University apologized to the officer tends to give validity to his account.

    As far as Punditfacts, much like Snopes, it is a liberal leaning group with definite agenda and a lot of the “verification” of comments made by conservative individuals are routinely rated as “mostly false,” even when the great majority of the facts are proven true and just a small percentage is ambiguous. Frankly I do not trust either right or left leaning sources and prefer to do the verification myself; with the abundance of search engines, it is not that difficult.

    Enough politics, back to KU basketball.



  • This is not the same thing as reporting facts about Bragg’s story. This is a report about an opinion. Reporting the guy’s opinion is not reporting facts. This would be the equivalent of the news interviewing Bragg’s “victim” and reporting that as the story. That’s what tabloids do.



  • @JayHawkFanToo Don’t discount Russia’s influence on making the professor call the police when he saw a …police officer. Those Ruskies are all powerful, you know.



  • @KUSTEVE

    Yep. If they were able to get into Hillary’s schedule and cancel all her appearance in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, who knows what they are capable of doing…those pesky Ruskies sure hate Catholics.

    P.S. I am Catholic.



  • @JayHawkFanToo said:

    Enough politics, back to KU basketball

    You see what idle minds do? Just a week off and we are already being led astray by distractions. The election’s legacy, no doubt.

    We need some good old basketball-related fights! There has been way too much agreement about the team. C’mon, people. You aren’t trying!



  • @mayjay

    Amen brother.



  • @JayHawkFanToo Unfortunately, I can’t tell if you are joking or if your “news” sources are telling you that there are people that believe the Russians cancelled Hillary’s stops in the rust belt. You just never know 😄



  • @approxinfinity There was an article earlier this year discussing the trouble The Onion was having coming up with satirical news stories because the real headlines were sometimes funnier.



  • @approxinfinity

    Of course I am joking. I don’t believe the Russians or anyone else could have cancelled those appearances…oh, wait…someone did…

    Just yanking your chain a little. It’s all good.

    P.S. FWIW, White House spokesman Josh Earnest just indicated there was no evidence of hacks impacting counting and/or casting of ballots.



  • @JayHawkFanToo said:

    @approxinfinity

    Of course I am joking. I don’t believe the Russians or anyone else could have cancelled those appearances…oh, wait…someone did…

    Just yanking your chain a little. It’s all good.

    P.S. FWIW, White House spokesman Josh Earnest just indicated there was no evidence of hacks impacting counting and/or casting of ballots.

    It’s all good.



  • @JayHawkFanToo Josh needs to talk to his boss then. I’m still waiting for the light bulb to come on indicating they have finally accepted the real reason she lost. Sooner or later they’ll run out of excuses and have to face facts.



  • @brooksmd Don’t blame me, I voted for Bernie 😄 Hillary was an awful nominee.



  • @approxinfinity

    Then you have a legitimate beef with the DNC since it conspired to marginalize Bernie and hand the nomination to Hillary. No guessing there since it is a proven fact that even Bernie got rightfully POd about.

    The sad truth is that in these elections we all held our noses and voted for who we thought was the lesser of two evils…or the less evil of two lessers…or…



  • @JayHawkFanToo As “deplorable” as it is, you’re right.



  • @brooksmd Wow.

    On one hand, yeah, it is comical.

    Second hand, its unfortunate that cops are looked upon with such distrust. BUT, they kinda did it to themselves, and I know, we cannot generalize or make snap judgements. Its not fair to everyone who wears the uniform. Not all cops are bad, etc… But seriously, how can anyone not be surprised about being looked at under a microscope if your an officer of the law?



  • @Fightsongwriter Glad you mentioned Rush Limbaugh. So, you heard Rush calling all Americans “idiots”… Hmmmm…when did that happen? Are you sure he didn’t say “liberals or progressives are idiots”? That’s really odd…I always thought Rush Limbaugh loved America. Just want to make sure you weren’t a victim of fake news. Now, I know this is a longshot, but maybe the Russians hacked into your radio signal you were listening to when you conducted your Rush Limbaugh investigation - I mean, if they’re powerful enough to make Hillary the most disliked candidate ever, the sky is the limit.



  • @KUSTEVE Just speculating here…In an uncharacteristically honest revelation, Rush Limbaugh probably admitted that he falls to his knees every day to thank God that Americans are such idiots.



  • @mayjay The definition of ignorance is contempt without investigation.



  • @KUSTEVE I believe that! That is why I read 4 papers a day, from WSJ to NYT, plus 3 to 4 online news sources, but I definitely won’t read any CIA intel reports. They made some mistakes, you know, so anything they say is ridiculous.

    Just funnin’, y’all!



  • @KUSTEVE Important clarification. He did not say “all Americans are idiots”. He said, “are we (have we become ) idiots?” It was a question for discussion (as much as allowed, right?), not a statement. Now I maybe listen once a month, and it was mildly entertaining. Probably 3-4 years ago. When you look at the cesspool of media, un-reality tv, and inane political blather, his premis, as exemplified by this story of the man in blue, may be spot on. Our minds have become so open our brains have leaked out. Our phones have become so smart our brains have leached all common sense. Thank the Lord we have Ku hoops to obsess about!!



  • Cops suck. They make snap judgements about civilians all the time. Not all are very good at what they do and the poor ones give the rest a bad name. I’m still waiting to meet a good one.

    If the shoe was on the other foot (given my personal experience) that student carrying a gun would’ve been tackled by several officers, experienced several broken ribs, likely been tasered 7-10 times and booked if he made it to jail alive. Then the prosecutor would go ahead and press charges. No possibilty of recourse for the student, lawyers won’t touch this stuff. (Pretty much what happened to my brother, but he didn’t have a weapon and was only 120 lbs).

    Law enforcement is above the law. And that is a major problem. I’m white and I have been wronged by law enforcement, I can only imagine how minorities are treated. There needs to be an enforcement task force to police the police IA isn’t getting it done. If Kansas cops are this crooked imagine Chicago’s police force.



  • @dylans I believe this one qualifies as a good one. Be sure and watch the re-match video.



  • @brooksmd That second video brought tears to my eyes. People need to watch that!

    Of course, now the NCAA will follow those 8 kids, rule that they received impermissible benefits, and screw up their first year of college. KU will help them out.





  • @KUSTEVE For all the criticism of the good old US of A, we have a pretty remarkably stable system, surviving many crises and major upheavals. Let us hope it stays that way.









  • Censorship…coming to social media platforms.



  • @KUSTEVE I thought that posting fake news on Social Media to drive ad revenue was right there in the 1st Amendment. Must be in the penumbra!



  • @mayjay It is a constitutional right of this administration to lie like rugs over the “Russian hack”, and the solemn duty of the mainstream media to act as court transcribers to every lie that lefty comes up without any form of examination. I fully support their right to lie to the American people without being censored.





  • @KUSTEVE lol @ Breitbart.



  • @approxinfinity but i’m right…lol. love ya,man…





  • I’d just note on the original story about the officer, the professor called the police because another student complained about feeling unsafe. I don’t know why that student complained, and obviously the journalists didn’t do a good job of figuring that out, but the professor was right to act on the student’s complaint. With on campus shootings happening, if you don’t know that this person is actually a real police officer, the fact that he is sitting there armed is reason for caution.

    As for the electoral college, I disagree with Trump, but he won the necessary amount of states, so I would rather the electoral college finalize his victory. If he is tied to Russia and acts in his own interests, instead of the interests of the American people as a result of his conflicts of interest, I hope the Republican controlled Congress holds him responsible rather than putting party over the good of the country.



  • @KUSTEVE I told my summer interns that voting didn’t matter as much as they think. It’s all up to the electoral college. One kids head nearly exploded in disbelief (his eyes are open now). Not all on the electoral college have to vote for candidate that won the vote count. I seriously doubt enough will change their vote to swing an election, but it’s a strange fact.

    I appreciate what the electoral college is supposed to do: give a voice to less populated areas. However, there doesn’t actually need to be an electoral college, just the votes/points they represent as voted by the public. No need for more intervention and the corruption that goes with it. A representative republic already limits its peoples input enough!



  • @dylans

    In all actuality, rural areas are overrepresented in the electoral college.

    Because each state has a minimum number of electors, and the electoral college is capped at 538, rural states tend to be over represented in the electoral college. The only real way to correct this would be to set the electoral college minimum at the smallest state (or DC), which is currently Wyoming, divide by three (the minimum number of electors currently) and then use that number to determine how many electors each other state gets.

    Of course, this would vastly increase the number of electors (California would have nearly 200 under this model), but that shows just how skewed the system is since California has only 55 electors right now, compared to Wyoming’s 3. Nearly every state would see an increase in electors, and the number of electors total would soar to between 1600 and 1800 (depending on how rounding is handled).



  • @justanotherfan

    Just some interesting numbers. Clinton won California by 4,5 million votes. Without California, Trump wins the popular vote by 1.5 million votes. California with 55 electoral college votes provides 20%+ of the votes required to win the election. New York and Florida have 58 votes combined. These 3 states combined provide 41% of the votes need to win the elections; add Illinois and Pennsylvanian with 40 votes and these 5 states have 60% of the votes needed.

    There are 3,144 counties (or equivalent such as parishes) in the country. Of these counties, 58 of the so called elite coastal counties or areas around big cities such as New York, Washington DC, Boston, LA, and Sacramento, have the same population as the rest of the remaining 3,086 counties in the country. BTW, Clinton won 500+ counties and Trump won 2,500+ counties

    It makes you appreciate the wisdom of the founding fathers when they created a Representative Republic with an Electoral College as opposed to a Democracy, when selecting the form of government.


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