Overview Crooks and Liars
Ad Fontes Media rates Crooks and Liars as being in the Hyper-Partisan left category of bias and as mixed reliability/opinion OR other issues in terms of reliability. John Amato started Crooks and Liars in 2004 as a progressive news site. It was one of the first websites to offer audio and video. It focuses on politics, media criticism and news. On average, the website receives 3.8 million visits per month.
Crooks and liars Overall Score
These are our Ad Fontes Media ratings methodologies that indicate the reliability and bias of Crooks and Liars.
Ad Fontes Media has a panel of analysts who regularly examine representative samples of content and rate them for crooks and liars reliability and bias. Each panel includes one left-leaning and one right-leaning analyst, as well as one center-leaning analyst.
When rating content, the team takes into account a number of factors. We consider the reliability score of content by evaluating its veracity, expression, title/headline, graphics, and other factors. Each of these scores are added to the chart using a weighted scale. The average score of all those who created the sample content is then used to calculate the overall crooks and liars reliability score.
We consider the content’s language and political position to determine its bias score. Also, how it compares with other analysis or reporting on the same topic. Each of these scores are added to the chart using a weighted scale. The average score of all those who created the content is then used.
On the Media Bias Chart(r), the bias rating ranges from the most extreme left to the middle to the most extreme right. The crooks and liars reliability rating, demonstrated on the chart’s vertical axis, rates sources on a scale from original fact reporting to analysis, opinion, propaganda and inaccurate/fabricated information.
The reliability scores for articles or shows are based on a scale from 0-64. Scores higher than 40 are considered good, while scores lower than 24 are considered to be problematic. Scores between 24-40 are indicative of a wide range of possible sources. Some sources fall there because they are rich in analysis and opinion, while others because there is a lot of variation between articles.
Bias scores for articles or shows range from -42 to +42. Higher negative scores are more left and higher positive scores more right. Scores closer to zero indicate that you are minimally biased, equally balanced or exhibit a centrist bias.
Individual Content Sample Scores
- These are the latest content samples Ad Fontes Media analysts have rated.
- One problem with big government: It is often run by crooks and liars
The presidential candidates have proposed ideas to expand government. These include a Green New Deal, Medicare for All and Medicare for All. These schemes have one flaw: they would give government officials vast new powers that could be exercised by not angels, but by very shady characters.
James Madison stated that politicians seek office from three motives. 1. ambition 2. personal interest. 3. Public good. The two first are most likely to make you happy.
Every day there are news stories that support Madison’s point. These are the two stories that caught my attention.
Catherine Pugh
“Personal Interest”, as covered by Brakkton Bucher of NPR Her attorney announced Thursday that Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh resigned after weeks of increasing pleas for her resignation.
Pugh is a Democrat and is currently under investigation for alleged self-dealing in relation to the sale of thousands upon thousands of copies of a self published children’s book series. Many of these sales were made to entities she controlled or sought to do business in the city.
The Baltimore Sun reported that she has received approximately $800,000. The University of Maryland Medical System is one of the largest benefactors.
UMMS, a private nonprofit, was Pugh’s board member from mid-March until her resignation. According to the Sun, Pugh was paid approximately $500,000 for five copies of the books in five installments between 2012-2018.
The Sun also reported a separate payment of Kaiser Permanente, a health giant, of more than $100,000 for approximately 20,000 copies of the book in 2015-2018.
The company received the payouts for the books at a time when it was trying to offer coverage to its employees. Pugh was a member of the city’s spending panel that ultimately awarded the company a $48million contract with the city.
Richard Holbrooke
Adam Kushner, Washington Post, wrote “Ambition”. The diplomat who died in 2006 was a hero with extraordinary talents. He achieved great feats of strength and rose to the top. His flaws were fatal to him. But, underneath all of this was a desperate, hungry ambition that drove him into a vicious circle toward his coworkers and those he claimed to love.
Holbrooke was “an absent husband and indifferent father” and cheated often over his three marriages. He also propositioned his best friend. He made a lunch date with George Kennan after the birth of his son Anthony. Then he went to the hospital to see his wife and meet his baby. Holbrooke was unable to bear his brother, mother and children. His third wife did not like them.
He was worse in government where he constantly fought for recognition and status, leaked (and lied) to hurt rivals and kowtowed towards bosses. He also terrorized his subordinates and pushed his way into meetings that he was not needed. Henry Kissinger once stated of Holbrooke, “He is one of the most violent characters I know in this town.”
How does government service look when it is so self-serving? Holbrooke, who was then assistant secretary of state for the United States, told his heirs that their offices needed to be painted and then replaced them. Holbrooke crashed so many Secretary of State Cyrus Vance meetings and motorcades, that Vance’s secretary sent a memo saying: “You cannot insert yourself as a driver in the Secretary’s car unless this Office has specifically approved your request.”
Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security advisor social media tips, wanted him fired because he had sat “warmly” in Laos with the Vietnamese ambassador before Washington restored relations with Hanoi. He lied and claimed that the report of the meeting was Soviet disinformation.
Holbrooke harassed Averell Harriman’s widow to let him deliver a eulogy after his mentor died. Then he shuffled name cards at dinner so he could “chat up” the right guest.
Holbrooke asked Pakistan’s foreign ministry to tell Secretary Hillary Clinton how great he was doing. You will have heard that he was an egotist monstrous. It’s true. It’s worse than you think,” [Biographer] Packer sums it.
Holbrooke’s ugly side is clearly shown by Packer. It’s everywhere and it’s disgusting. Holbrooke spent most of his career making enemies and finally got his comeuppance in spurts. He said, “I’m going be the next Henry Kissinger” to a woman he loved in his 30s. She had actually known Kissinger and found him a pompous asshole. She eventually left him.