BREAKING: CNN starts teasing at 4 PM!

SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 2020

With slender fact-check at 11: Yesterday afternoon, CNN initiated its repetitive tease right at 4 PM Eastern.

In this case, they were teasing the ceremony in which President Donald J. Trump would sign the $2.2 trillion disaster bill.

It wasn't exactly Jake Tapper's fault. But this is what he was directed to say, right at 4 PM Eastern:

ANNOUNCER (3/27/20): This is CNN breaking news

TAPPER: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper.

At any moment, we're expecting President Trump to sign the $2 trillion stimulus bill into law. We are going to bring that to you when it happens.

They were going to bring us the ceremony live. How the disinformation would flow!

After the signing ceremony was done, CNN began to tease the daily "press briefing." By now, it's North Korean TV all day, with the commander spewing nonsense and misinformation and CNN urging us not to miss it.

These sessions are State Propaganda all the way down. And make no mistake, people at CNN know this. Consider a case in point:

During the 5 PM hour, Wolf Blitzer aired a punishing report by Drew Griffin. For unknown reasons, this is the one hour from yesterday's broadcasts which CNN hasn't transcribed, so we can't show you all of what Griffin said.

We can tell you this. The portion of Griffin's report for which there is tape carries these unfortunate headlines:

Doctors and nurses alarmed about lack of supplies
As healthcare workers across the country become sick with Covid-19, doctors and nurses tell CNN they are worried about the lack of proper protective equipment.

CNN was waiting for the commander to start spewing misinformation in his daily prime time "briefing." As the network waited, Griffin offered a cheerless report about the way front-line health workers are being forced to put their own lives on the line.

You can watch the last three minutes of his report through this tweet by Griffin. Along the way, Griffin reported some familiar facts:

"Many medical workers are fighting this battle without the thinnest level of protection," he said. "[Without] the face masks, the plastic face shields, the flimsiest if plastic gowns that could mean the diff between treating the infected and becoming one of them."

Griffin spoke with medical workers who felt their own lives were at risk due to the lack of basic equipment. "The biggest question we're hearing: Where is it?" Griffin unpleasantly said. "Where are the strategic stockpiles the president and his administration keep talking about?"

As he closed, Griffin resorted to samizdat. On our own North Korean TV, basic information must now be masked in such ways as this:

GRIFFIN (3/27/20): Wolf, because of the shortages in this proper protective equipment, they're being asked to do what they say would have gotten them fired a short time ago.

They want us to tell you the stories because of the briefing you're about to hear. They say there is a shortage all across the country, no matter what you're being told.

Say what? These heroic medical workers want people to hear their stories because of the commander's briefings? They want us to hear the truth no matter what we're being told?

So it went in the samizdat wing of our new state-run TV. And dear God! If you watch the tape of Griffin's report, you can observe the ultimate insult:

Even as Griffin was signaling that these briefings are disinformation, there was CNN's visual tease for the upcoming session. These sessions are bullshit, CNN said. Please be sure to watch!

Yesterday at CNN, there was a change in procedure. Through Thursday, CNN had been cutting away from the commander's "briefings" as soon as the commander himself left the stage.

Yesterday, that procedure changed. CNN stuck it out to the bitter end, even after the commander turned things over to Vice President Heep.

Yesterday, CNN aired the entire briefing live. And when CNN aired the "briefing" live, the disinformation rolled down like waters and the feel-good distractions like a mighty stream.

For the first time since Monday, Dear Leader didn't make us listen to his claim about the way we've been testing more people, in eight days, than the ballyhooed South Koreans managed to do in eight weeks.

At last, that script was gone. That said, all manner of new absurdities were offered as the commander kept telling us about the giant amounts or material he had caused to flow.

Wholly irrelevant information was marbled through the improbable claims. Consider these stupenagel excerpts:

TRUMP (3/27/20): Under the normal condition that you would be—regular times—29,000 ventilators are distributed in the United States each year. In the next 100 days—well, first of all, we’ve already delivered thousands of them—but within the next 100 days, we will either make or get, in some form, over 100,000 additional units. And I guess, to put it in other words, in the next 100 days, we’ll receive over three times the number of ventilators made during a regular year in the United States, and that doesn’t include all of the thousands and thousands that we’ve—we’ve given to the various states, a lot of them.

We delivered thousands, as you know, to New York and they didn’t know they got them. And then we also had thousands put in a warehouse, and that was also for New York. And they just found out that they were there, so we have to make sure that when we deliver things, they get distributed.

[...]

Boeing is also offering us the use of their—what they call the Dreamlifter cargo plane. It’s the largest plane in the world. And this is sort of a picture of it. They called up just a little while ago. And that can sort of take anything. That’s the biggest in the world. And they’re letting us use that for the distribution of product all over the country, especially the heavy product or large quantities of product.

And Boeing will dedicate up to three planes to the mission of flying medical supplies anywhere we need it. Each plane can carry 63,000 pounds of cargo per flight. That’s a lot of cargo.

[...]

And we’re going to be in very good shape, in terms of certain equipment that’s very hard to get, very hard to manufacture. And at the right time, we’ll be distributing that equipment throughout the world to other countries.

Boris Johnson was asking for ventilators today. As you know, Boris is—he has tested—unfortunately, he has tested positive and that’s a terrible thing. But he’s going to be great. I’m sure he’s going to be totally great. But they want ventilators. Italy wants ventilators. Spain wants ventilators. Germany wants ventilators. They’re all calling for ventilators. Well, we’re going to make a lot of ventilators. And we’ll take care of our needs, but we’re also going to help other countries.

[...]

Don’t forget, we sent thousands of ventilators to New York, and they didn’t know they got them. Then we sent thousands of ventilators to New York—they have a warehouse, a New York warehouse in Edison, New Jersey, which is an interesting thing. And we sent them to Edison, New Jersey. They were in the warehouse, ready to go, and New York never took them. So they knew they were there. So we have to get people lined up, but we’ve given them—

And I’m not blaming New York. Look, this is something that’s of a magnitude that nobody has ever seen before. But I’ll tell you what: The federal government has done a hell of a job.

So we sent thousands of ventilators to New York, and they didn’t know about it at the time. They were complaining. Thousands. We had 2,000, and then 2,000, and then 4,000, and they were going there in large numbers. And then before that, we sent many thousands.

We want to have so many that we do have more than we need because we can send them to other great countries and other countries that have been our friends. And they’ll never be able to do it themselves.

It's hard to scale the mountains of bullshit this disordered man can produce.

Part of those excerpts can be filed under "promises, promises." We're going to have so many extra ventilators that we'll be sending them to others all over the world!

Part of that was gong-show misdirection. That Boeing plane is amazingly big! It’s the largest plane in the world!

Part of that involved a new, highly suspect claim concerning the bungling fools in the state of New York. We sent them thousands and thousands of ventilators! They put them in a Jersey warehouse! They didn't even know they were there!

This is the lunacy which transpires when this highly disordered man is broadcast into American homes. At CNN, the best they can do is signal you, through samizdat, that what you're going to hear won't be true—even as they tease the upcoming performance, which they'll broadcast live.

The commander continued to repeat various pieces of misinformation and various distractions. Included was that new claim about the dummies in New York.

(Key point: Though the benevolence of Dear Leader, he isn't blaming New York.)

CNN's reaction? They finally got around to fact-checking this peculiar new claim in the 11 PM hour. They'd promoted the briefing, knowing it would be disinformation. Five hours later, Daniel Dale said he knew of no factual basis for this latest apparent tall tale.

As we noted yesterday, we live in North Korea now. CNN knows that these briefings are disinformation, but they tease them all afternoon and then they broadcast them live. And with that said, one additional point must be made:

During the briefings, no one asks this disordered man why his latest claims should be believed, given his past tall tales.

His previous claims have been crazily wrong, but no one dares confront him in such an impolite manner. CNN teases, then airs, these ridiculous sessions. And because we live in North Korea, the children arrayed before Dear Leader know they must defer.

So it goes with the rational animal in this plague year of the lord.

UPDATE: CNN has now posted the transcript from yesterday's 5 PM hour. You can read the full text of Drew Griffin's report. To do so, just click here.

The medical workers with whom Griffin spoke wanted you to hear their stories "because of the briefing you're about to hear!" As Griffin delivered his report, CNN was urging you to watch that briefing, even though Griffin and Blitzer knew it would be wholly bogus.

So it goes with the rational animal in this plague year of the faux.