By Patrick
Read also our previous reports about the Stratfor emails:
+++ PART 1: Disparaging comments about Sarah Palin, - "President Hockey Mom" - Contempt for the American electorate as a whole - The real reason why Republicans attack Obamacare +++
+++ PART 2: Bad news for Mitt Romney: "Romney has been disastrous", "Romney thinks he can win. Mormon, no way" - PLUS: More GOP inside info and brutal remarks about Michelle Bachmann and again, about Sarah Palin: "Can carry the white trash and redneck vote" +++
The reporting by Politicalgates about the leaked Stratfor emails finally got more attention. As I explained and proved in the previous posts, Wikileaks granted us exclusive unrestricted access to the complete pile of millions of Stratfor-emails.
After our first post was tweeted by Wikileaks themselves and Andrew Sullivan also reported a memorable quote from the emails, I was incredibly happy to see that one of our favourite independent journalists, Cenk Uygur from "The Young Turks", yesterday published an extensive segment about the emails on their show, and credited Politicalgates with the new revelations (as well as Wikileaks and Anonymous, who obtained the emails in the first place). Cenk quotes email after email and clearly had a lot fun explaining to his audience how cynical the experts behind the scenes view the whole process, and how badly they view Mitt Romney.
Watch this segment from August 8, 2012 (uploaded with express permission by "The Young Turks"):
Screenshot from the "Current TV" website:
Click here to go to the main website of "The Young Turks."
If you are not familiar with Stratfor, read their Wikipedia-page.
However, there is of course much more. As far as the US-presidential race is concerned, there is one particular "gold nugget" which I found only after my first two posts were published, and which should raise eyebrows as well. In fact, it should make headlines.
The Vice-President of Stratfor, Fred Burton reports in June 2011 about discussion he had with Texas Governor Rick Perry - the content of which won't make Mitt Romney very happy!
Fred Burton wrote:
85 % Gov Perry will run for POTUS per a discussion with the Gov.
He feels Romney can't get elected.
Screenshot:
OH SNAP! Rick Perry feels Mitt Romney cannot get elected!
Is there actually anyone in the Republican party who thinks that Mitt Romney CAN get elected?
We already knew from the previous revelations that Fred Burton also strongly believes that Romney is unelectable, mostly due to the fact he is Mormon.
But I found another "nugget" by Fred Burton (who is not shy to make harsh and "politically incorrect" comments in the emails about a whole range of different topics). Fred Burton found another reason why Mitt Romney has a problem to find sufficient appreciation within the electorate:
It's a black issue in Michigan. How many blacks think Romney (Mormon
whitey with shiny hair) will help them? Zero. He looks like a Loo-siana State Trooper.
OH SNAP again! Fred Burton truly calls it like he sees it. One could virtually fill a book with memorable quotes by Burton.
Yes - how many blacks will actually vote for Romney? Do they really want a "Mormon whitey with shiny hair", as Fred Burton puts it?
Screenshot (as in the previous posts, I blacked out the name of the Stratfor-analysts):
"Loo-siana!" That really made me laugh. It is very mean, this remark, of course, and apologies to readers who are proud of their state, but this remark clearly has a hint of brilliance as well.
The Stratfor emails also deal with a subject which the mainstream is certainly not to keen to report about - the sorry state of the mainstream media and of investigative journalism itself. Here at Politicalgates we wrote many times about the fact that true fearless and hard-hitting investigative journalism in the USA is pretty much dead.
There are of course a few independent journalists left who are not afraid to report about the truth. Journalists like Brad Friedman and of course Cenk Uygur come to mind, and then there are websites like Think Progress, Alternet, and some others - but frankly, these journalists are few in number, and their readership is relatively small. And even these independents journalists cannot touch certain taboo subjects, as the reporting about Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy proved - a scandal which was incredibly easy to discover and was also an open secret in Alaska in 2008 (see for example our rebuttal to Justin Elliott's article which he published at Salon).
We have news: The analysts at Stratfor share our negative view about the USA media!
Quote:
If newspapers were doing their job properly, if they were following the edict of the great London Times editor Thomas Delane that 'the duty of the press is disclosure', there would be little space for Wikileaks. Much of the media, particularly in metropolitan America, has resigned from investigative journalism, preferring instead to feed off the corporate and government spin doctors for serious news, and publish tedious 'lifestyle' sections.
Can you believe it? If you would like to read some true thoughts about the US media these days, you need to resort to leaked emails!
Also, note the positive comments about Wikileaks in this exchange. But, but...I thought they were terrorists, who need to be assassinated, according to a large section of right-wingers?
It turns out that the Wikileaks-people are in fact "sick of spin doctors and politicians telling lies."
Screenshot:
What a great quote by this Stratfor-analyst. For this quote alone, it was worth to publish these emails.
However, I was pleased to read that these negative views apparently do not apply to all the media outlets.
The analysts at Stratfor hold for example the German "Spiegel" and the UK "Guardian" in high regard:
To answer xxxx's question, this is certainly something that could be assumed. Mossad and German intelligence have grown close over the years, especially following the fiasco in Munich. On the other hand, Der Spiegel usually does very good in depth analyses and investigative work. Best at that in Germany. In that way, it has a very good tradition of
investigative journalism similar to the Guardian (although it is a weekly, not a daily like the Guardian).
Screenshot:
It is just a shame that "Der Spiegel" is published in German, although it also features a small English section. It really still is the beacon of investigative journalism, with nearly 100 people working in their fact-checking department, even if this is not often visible to the English-speaking world. The UK Guardian provides outstanding investigative journalism as well. In the USA, it is mainly the group of small independent journalists who deliver, although I would like to point out that it gives me some hope when even a rather "inconspicuous" outlet like AP presents some solid investigative research on Mitt Romney. There might be hope, but only if the media is not afraid of the truth, which in many cases will be shocking and highly inconvenient. Just remember: "The duty of the press is disclosure", not getting involved in partisan politics.
+++
UPDATE:
Wikileaks just tweeted this post! The second tweet by Wikileaks in a week to one of our posts! Many thanks, we really appreciate it!
I now have the complete video to the clip by "The Young Turks", which they have posted on their website. Look at the youtube clip with just the audio for listening which I included above!
I do not want to post the complete video clip by "The Young Turks" right now, as it seems to be behind a paywall. Maybe they will publish it on youtube later. Here are some screenshots with the brilliant Cenk Uygur:
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