Our brilliant and knowledgeable journalists
Katy Tur of MSNOW:
Katy Tur: What about this passage from Mike Johnson declaring that our rights do not derive from government? They come from you, our creator and heavenly father. Is this him putting God over the Declaration of Independence?
McKay Coppins: I actually think that that idea is not wholly uncommon. I mean, the idea that we have certain inalienable rights that come from god can be read in a fairly benign way, which is basically that we have innate human rights, that our constitution and our government, our democratic government are meant to codify. Right. That idea is not totally abnormal.
Good to know it’s not “totally abnormal” (Coppins is a staff writer at The Atlantic). Tur is 42 years old and Coppins is 39. Do they know anything about the text of the Declaration of Independence? Back in the ancient times of my own youthful education, we were required to memorize a couple of paragraphs, including the relevant passage “they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”
It reminds me that it was often Obama;s habit to leave out the “Creator” part (from 2010):
At a Democratic fundraiser on Monday night, President Obama once again misquoted the Declaration of Independence’s most famous sentence and once again omitted its reference to our “Creator.” According to the text of his remarks published on the official White House website, he said: “[W]hat makes this place [America] special is not something physical. It has to do with this idea that was started by 13 colonies that decided to throw off the yoke of an empire, and said, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that each of us are endowed with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’”
The first time that something happens and is met with publicity and criticism, it could well be an accident or part of the learning curve — like the first time one bows down to foreign royalty when other U.S. presidents haven’t; or the first time one issues a public apology abroad for past (real or imagined) American sins in a way that other presidents haven’t. But the second time, the assumption must be that it’s probably deliberate — and that makes it all the more appalling. Other presidents didn’t deliberately misquote the Declaration, and they didn’t leave out (or rewrite) the words about our rights being endowed by our Creator.
NOTE Some of what is going on with Tur et al. is that she suffers from a lack of cultural literacy (see this).
NOTE II: I know I’ve already written a lot about the abominable Kristof article, but here’s a link to a good essay about it, by Judge Roy K. Altman.
Tur and Coppins are products of our totally corrupted educational system.
Katy Tur is a former mistress of Keith Olbermann, when he was 47 and she was 23, and he said he always had to rewrite stuff for her because she’s dumb. Take it with a grain of salt, perhaps.
As Huffington Post reported in 2008, quoting NY Post:
Be that as it may, she is not the only journalist of national prominence who is a former mistress or girlfriend of Keith Olbermann, there’s at least four others that I know of, and my interest in Keith Olbermann is practically zero.
My point is that besides ignorance, the huge problem we have with journalists is their network of undisclosed relationships: whether it’s by marriage, sex, blood, college roommates, whatever. This is how and why they all so quickly get on the same page.
Steve Hayward at Powerline:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/05/podcast-michael-auslins-national-treasure.php
I wonder if it would be feasible for a group of Israeli prison guards to sue Kristof and the NYT?
That would be delicious.
Since he doesn’t need the money, I also wonder if Trump has ever considered in lieu of a monetary settlement with media Trolls, that they stand, say at the Washington Monument at high noon, barefoot, in sack cloth, and shout their apology at least three times. Sometimes imagination overpowers reality.
Excellent article by Judge Roy K. Altman. Thanks for the link Neo.
I wonder if the people who need to see that will read it.
Coppins who went to st johns college and learned nothing from the great books then went on to buzzfeed
But as the legendary kingsfield put it ‘their heads are full of mush’ if you dont understand the declaration well what good are you
There are no actual evidence points that one can use
Katy Tur is IIRC the daughter of transgender helicopter pilot Zoe Tur (f/k/a Bob Tur) who shot a lot of airborne footage of the 1992 Rodney King riots.
So much to say and on this topic. Randomly:
I posted an editiorial written by Gorsuch not long ago on the Declaration.
– We are born equal.
– Our rights come from God, not government.
– We form governments to secure those rights.
The above is The American Way, and it is what separates us from the lower forms.
…he said he always had to rewrite stuff for her because she’s dumb.
Well, she is.
In fact, journalists are the dumbest people I’ve come across. Forgivable in itself, but made insufferable by the fact that they think themselves the smartest.
I second DisGuested‘s “thank you” for the Altman article. That was great.
Do they know anything about the text of the Declaration of Independence?
No. They don’t.
I really liked that national treasure series it showcased cage optimiistic if eccentric bent
His tech associate is obviously narrow focused
Recall ezra klein disdain that the constitution is over a hundred years old so
IIRC Katy Tur’s father was abusive to her and she does not speak highly of him.
She’s a fan of the band Phish and a few years ago she was known to drop phrases from the band’s lyrics into her newscasts so she has that going for her. I don’t know if she still does that.
Our elite insect overlords aren’t what they used to be, now they are just grubs.
America was blessed with the small numbers of our Founding Fathers comimg together in the 1770s, and we have suffered with a few handfulls ever since. Now we have racehustlers, feminists and similar trash. The brilliance of America’s founders has evaporated. And will not be recovered.
“The brilliance of America’s founders has evaporated.”
Just as matter can be neither created nor destroyed…
Brilliance arises in every generation and wisdom is eternal.
Eternal because truth, the kernel within wisdom… is eternal and truth, stands above all.
Katie needs a mind like a Phish needs a bicycle.
IIRC Katy Tur’s father was abusive to her and she does not speak highly of him.
==
He’s a well known head case. No surprise there.
==
Katy Tur’s the issue of a private day school in Los Angeles and UCSB. At UCSB, she studied philosophy or all things. Anyone who had done a cursory study of 18th century political theory (or anyone with a modicum of common sense) would not have been bumfuzzled by Johnson’s remarks.
I have a niece whose schooling included a diploma from a handsome suburban high school near San Jose, four years to complete a baccalaureate (one year of which was at UCSB) and a vocational master’s degree that it took her three years to finish. I can hear her making an utterance at least as clueless. General intelligence isn’t the issue with her. She was also quite carefully and attentively reared, but her father is the sort whose political views consist of an assemblage of attitudes.
@ om > “Katie needs a mind like a Phish needs a bicycle.”
Hmm, rimshot or mic drop?
A hard decision!
“Sometimes imagination overpowers reality.“
Alas it’s come to this:
“Sex therapist Dem candidate blasted over vile call to convert ICE facilities into camps for ‘American Zionists’ with castration center”—
https://tinyurl.com/ycxwm9m5
Opening grafs:
Even though we’re not in Kansas anymore—in fact, we’re way, way out in La-La Land—some Democratic Party pushback would be kinda nice….
(Not certain there’s any hope of that happening, though… Maybe Fetterman…)
Related:
https://instapundit.com/797894/
Guess there is some pushback.
But Lordy, she sure sounds like a doe-eyed, Carlson-infatuated acolyte…
…speaking of whom, his latest expression of “concern” for Israel is downright…touching…
“Tucker Carlson to Israeli channel: Netanyahu leading Israel toward destruction;
“In an interview with Israel’s Channel 13 News, Tucker Carlson slams Netanyahu, calls for an end to US aid, and denies Israel is a democracy.”—
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/427335
@ Niketas > “My point is that besides ignorance, the huge problem we have with journalists is their network of undisclosed relationships: whether it’s by marriage, sex, blood, college roommates, whatever. This is how and why they all so quickly get on the same page.”
Not just with journalists.
Especially the “marriage” factor.
DataRepublican’s investigation (https://datarepublican.substack.com/p/the-shadow-cabinet-of-soros) shows that there is a massive network of connections within government, academia, NGOs, and media where two married people interact with each other’s professional institutions, influencing or even controlling funding, publications, policies, and just about everything used to move money and power around.
And the women almost never use their husband’s names professionally, which is understandable, and not, in theory, some kind of malicious camouflage; BUT someone taking a cursory look into the facts-formerly-known-as-conspiracy-theories does not (cannot!) discern the hidden, incestuous, mingling of influence and patronage, so it does become subversive in practice.
I noticed that mingling on occasion over the years, starting with Obama’s administration; we saw that recently with Fauci and his wife Christine Grady.
But I had no idea it was so widespread and pervasive!
One sample (only 2 couples use the same surname):
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/list-of-obama-administration-power-couples-grows
As for the Fauci couple:
Notice how carefully the Wiki editors note their spousal relationship, and also carefully do not note why she was reassigned from her job in 2025.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Grady
Dr. I Am The Science has an even less revealing article.
This is all it says about their professional hierarchical connection.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Fauci
And then a loooooong way down:
*What did he do with all that money? And his wife made almost as much.
Wiki readers would never find out this:
https://openthebooks.substack.com/p/the-house-of-fauci-how-dr-christine
Discussing such important things together, given their respective professions, was not in and of itself nefarious, although they were both very, very badly wrong and duplicitous (well, lying scoundrels and murderers); however, their marital relationship was not obvious to the public (prior to the interviews much later in the pandemic), and so it looked like two INDEPENDENT prominent NIH officials had the same opinions, giving them more credibility.
Same thing with all the married couples (sex partners, blood relations, college roommates, whatever) when the relationships are not disclosed to the people whose lives they are manipulating.
Bioethicist, eh?
That really takes the cake….
(More like “bye-bye-O-ethicist”…)
FWIW, this is what Democrat readers would “know” about Fauci and Grady, and they would be even more sympathetic about the dismissals (not firings, really) if they had seen that 2021 interview referenced above.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/02/fauci-allies-covid-vaccine-officials-dismissed-nih-00265714
As the NYT motors on, doing what it does best…
“New York Times Blames Jews For Antisemitism—In Obituary of ADL Chief Abe Foxman”—
https://freebeacon.substack.com/p/new-york-times-blames-jews-for-antisemitismin
Perhaps God DOES work in mysterious ways…
Barry, the NYT makes Der Sturmer look like a Hadassah newsletter.
Have I written this here before? It’s worth repeating.
Always fresh…unfortunately…
— neo
Most likely not.
Remember what Ben Rhodes (Obama’s national security czar) said of ‘reporters’ years ago:
When Trump ran in 2015/16, his weird superpower manifested itself: the ability to cause people to reveal where they really stand. A lot of lefty reporters and entertainers suddenly admitted aloud what they always thought, i.e. that the Founders were, at best, clueless and irrelevant to the modern world and that we had long since moved beyond them. I heard stuff along these lines said aloud in response to Trump’s gathering momentum.
The current governing class holds their own countries, and cultures, in deep contempt and disdain, and many of them actively despise the average citizens of those places.
‘I’m just a piano player in this whore house, don’t you dare call me a journalist.’
My school psychiatrist said I was not totally abnormal.